I  BERTRAND  SMITH 

S  OF  B< 

1140  -     :  AVENUE 

LONG  BEACH  2 

CALIFORNIA 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS 


NEW  YORK 
CASSELL  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

104  &  106  FOURTH  AVENUE 


COPYRIGHT,  1890, 

BY 
CASSELL  PUBLISHING  COMPANY. 


THE   MERSHON  COMPANY   PRESS, 
RAHWAY,  N.  J. 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


I. 

"  WE  shall  send  the  dogs  and  ser 
vants  at  once  to  Washington  Square," 
said  Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis,  settling  another 
little  cushion  in  the  curve  beneath  her 
shoulder-blades,  as  she  leaned  back  in 
her  steamer-chair  on  the  deck  of  the 
Etruria,  homeward  bound.  "  My  hus 
band  will  of  course  meet  us  at  the 
dock,  and  take  all  the  bother  of  cus 
toms  off  our  hands.  It  is  possible  we 
may  sleep  at  home  for  a  night,  but  I 
am  more  than  half  decided  to  take  Lily 
directly  to  Tupelo.  It  will  be  in  the 
middle  of  the  week,  you  know,  and 
there's  no  place  so  good  to  rest  in  as 


2212581 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


Tupelo  in  the  middle  of  the  week. 
So  soothing  !  Such  an  atmosphere. 
So  unAmerican,  in  short." 

"  Ah,  yes  !  there  is  nothing  like  Tu 
pelo,"  murmured  Mrs.  Clay,  whose 
manner  conveyed  a  confidential  tinge 
to  her  simplest  utterance.  In  her 
heart  she  was  saying :  "  Why,  the 
woman  is  delicious  !  Who  would  sup 
pose  she  had  never  been  there,  and 
that  she  knows  I  know  it  ?  It  is  all 
right.  I  am  safe  in  taking  her  up  this 
way.  For  a  beginner  she's  immense." 

"  Mr.  Curtis  has  bought  land  there 
recently,  and  is  waiting  for  me  to 
decide  on  the  plans  to  build  our  cot 
tage.  One  needs  something  to  do 
away  with  the  first  impression  of  those 
nasty  New  York  streets  on  landing," 
pursued  the  elder  dame.  "  Actually, 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


the  whole  thing  seems  more  dingy  and 
deplorable  to  me  every  time  I  come 
back.  Such  a  dreadful  rattle  in  one's 
ears,  the  sidewalks  so  filthy  and  ob 
structed,  the  lower  classes  so  presum 
ing,  and  the  sun  glaring  so  you  can't 
help  seeing  everything.  Lily,  if  you'll 
believe  me,  likes  it.  She  says  it  makes 
her  blood  jump.  Why,  when  Lord 
Frederick  told  her  his  cab  had  gone 
into  a  rut  and  smashed  a  hat  for  him 
before  he  had  driven  a  block  away  from 
the  Cunard  dock,  last  year,  and  that 
he'd  half  a  mind  to  write  a  letter  to  the 
papers  in  complaint,  Lily  made  fun  of 
him  so  that  he  almost  found  it  out. 
Such  a  tiresome  child !  One  might 
think  she  had  been  educated  in  the 
States,  instead  of  having  every  advan 
tage  Europe  can  afford." 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


They  were  two  days  out  from 
Queenstown.  It  was  a  fine  October 
morning,  that  brought  up  the  invalids 
in  force.  The  ship  might  have  been  a 
great  floating  hospital.  All  sorts  and 
conditions  of  men  and  women  were 
equalized  by  costumes  and  attitudes 
suggesting  alternately  a  mummy  and 
an  Indian  papoose.  The  deck  steward, 
with  fruits  and  drinks,  was  the  hero  of 
the  hour.  Conversation  among  those 
of  the  sufferers  who  knew  each  other 
had  sunk  to  the  lowest  ebb.  To  keep 
up,  to  keep  respectable,  in  most  of 
them,  precluded  all  mental  as  well  as 
physical  effort.  "  Please  go  away," 
breathed  a  bride  to  her  beloved  one. 
"  I  was  just  feeling  betto.  when  you 
said  '  Poor  darling  ! '  and  now  I  'm  ill 
again."  "  There  is  no  use  in  your 


THE  ANGLO.'\fANfACS. 


being  witty,"  another  young  woman 
remarked  to  the  man  who  was  endeav 
oring  to  make  her  forget  her  woes. 
"  If  I  laugh,  I'm  gone." 

Those  provoking  people  whom  the 
consciousness  of  the  screw  did  not 
affect  were  variously  disposed.  Some 

% 

were  walking  as  if  without  intention 
to  stop  short  of  the  other  continent. 
Others  formed  into  confidential  if 
lethargic  groups,  holding  novels,  lap- 
dogs,  parasols,  turning  their  backs  upon 
the  ailing,  each  woman  secretly  won 
dering  if  shipboard  was  as  unbecoming 
to  her  as  to  her  comrade.  With  the 
two  ladies  we  have  to  do  with,  matters 
had  already  progressed  far  beyond  the 
usual  unfolding  of  trivial  plans  and 
personalities  common  to  voyagers  at 
sea.  Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis  (note,  please, 


THE  A NGL OMAXIA  C$. 


the  fashionable  hyphen,  now  in  such 
common  use  :  it  had  been  acquired  and 
packed  up  with  her  latest  batch  of 
London  stationery  ;  "  Mrs.  Eliphalet 
F.  Curtis "  the  good  lady  had  gone 
forth  from  Sandy  Hook  in  May)  was  a 
fine  specimen  of  the  American  woman 
in  her  forties.  Her  features  were  small 
and  regular,  her  complexion  was  like 
a  china  doll's  ;  her  dark  hair,  worn  in 
scallops  on  her  brow,  was  even  at  this 
hour  elaborately  dressed ;  a  veil  of  dot 
ted  lace  covered  the  tip  of  her  nose, 
and  she  was  buttoned  up  in  a  tight- 
fitting  Redfern  suit  of  tweeds.  •  The 
rug  over  her  knees,  half  concealing  an 
abject  scrap  of  a  thing  she  called  an 
Algerian  poodle,  was  of  softest  otter. 
The  little  cushions  tucked  in  around 
her  spine  were  of  silk-covered  eider- 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


down.  They — the  deck-chair,  the  rug, 
and  the  apology  for  a  dog — had  been 
brought  out  and  put  in  place  for  my 
lady  by  an  obsequious  menial,  who 
immediately  after  retired  from  service, 
and  was  prone  during  the  rest  of  the 
voyage.  This  one  act,  however,  per 
formed  with  such  radiant  effect  before 
the  eyes  of  the  other  passengers,  fully 
justified  his  engagement  as  a  first-class 
traveling  footman. 

One  could  see  in  looking  at  Mrs. 
Floyd-Curtis  that  her  figure  was  con 
sidered  by  her  to  be  her  strong  point. 
She  was  of  the  well-developed,  small- 
waisted  type  familiar  in  the  cashier's 
seat  of  a  French  restaurant.  The  sole 
interruption  to  her  self-complacency  in 
this  matter  was  the  inevitable  ten 
dency  of  flesh  compressed  around  the 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


waist-line  to  escape  below  it.  No  de 
vice  of  her  men-milliners  could  entire 
ly  conquer  this  defect.  Mrs.  Curtis 
hardly  ever  forgot  to  be  conscious 
of  it.  It  chastened  her  moments  of 
otherwise  perfect  satisfaction  with  tem 
poral  affairs.  Little  Mrs.  Clay,  on  the 
other  hand,  was  as  indifferent  as  Sara 
Bernhardt  is  to  considerations  of  close- 
fitting  drapery.  Her  frocks  wrinkled 
around  her  slim  body  like  the  long 
Swedish  gloves  upon  her  arms.  They 
rose  in  peaks  upon  her  shoulders,  and 
were  girdled  by  loosely  clinging  zones 
around  her  waist,  the  scant  skirts 
escaping  into  curling  waves  around 
her  high-heeled  feet.  Spiteful  women 
compared  her  to  a  billiard  cue,  but 
Mrs.  Clay  was  better  than  pretty — she 
was  picturesque.  Each  pose  was  a 


THE  ANGLO  MANIACS. 


study  for  a  Mendelssohn  or  Roseti 
photograph,  and  to  both  of  these 
artists  she  had  been  a  mine  of  sug- 
gestiveness.  Everybody  knows  Mrs. 
Clay's  photographs — the  little  childlike 
creature  with  the  large  wistful  eyes 
and  tiny  mouth,  sitting  curled  up  in  a 
moyen-dge  arm-chair,  or  holding  to  a 
curtain  with  one  arm  above  her  head, 
or  shading  her  cheek  with  a  huge 
feather  fan.  There  is  a  steady  call  for 
them  in  the  shops  where  such  things 
may  be  bought. 

Mrs.  Clay's  title  to  sympathy  for  an 
Iliad  of  matrimonial  woes,  while  con 
ceded  by  New  York  society  at  large, 
was  but  vaguely  understood.  She  was 
a  New  York  girl,  well  placed,  coming 
of  a  family  of  merchants  who,  by  grace 
of  a  generation  or  two  of  wealth  and 


10  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

culture,  took  rank  among-  later  aspir 
ants  as  if  born  to  the  purple.  Ten 
years  or  so  ago  she  had  married  Bertie 
Clay,  a  handsome  young  Englishman, 
son  of  a  poverty-stricken  lord,  and  had 
carried  him  in  dowry  a  not  inconsider 
able  sum  of  ready  money.  Cash  was 
all  that  Bertie  ever  needed  to  make 
him  good  and  happy,  and  for  a  time 
the  Clays  were  seen  and  heard  of  on 
the  top  wave  of  London's  "  smart " 
society.  Then  rumors  came  to  Bar 
bara's  old  friends  of  domestic  infelic 
ity,  of  duns,  of  money  borrowed  from 
every  American  who  could  pay  for  a 
foothold  on  the  social  ladder  where 
Barbara  had  already  climbed. 

Presently  Mrs.  Clay  returned  to 
New  York  without  her  husband. 
"  Dear  Bertie  is  on  a  yacht,"  she  would 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  II 

say  pleasantly  when  asked  about  Mr. 
Clay.  To  judge  from  his  persistence 
in  this  pastime  during  many  years 
thereafter,  the  Honorable  Bertie  must 
have  led  a  very  Vanderdecken  kind  of 
life. 

And  then  Barbara's  father,  who  had 
always  lived  well,  and  had  given  good 
dinners,  died,  leaving  his  stricken  dove 
of  an  only  child  a  mere  pittance  of  an 
income.  Speculations  had  wiped  out 
his  bank  account,  and  the  world  said 
Mrs.  Clay  would  starve.  But  instead 
of  starving,  Barbara  took  a  little  nest 
of  a  flat  in  the  Guelph  apartment 
house  in  Fifth  Avenue.  It  was  six 
flights  up,  but  there  was  a  lift,  and  a 
boy  in  buttons  to  show  visitors  the 
way.  Besides,  Barbara  was  hardly 
ever  at  home,  except  to  the  few  men 


12  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

and  women  she  elected  to  receive. 
She  was  always  running-  off  on  little 
jaunts  to  Newport,  Lenox,  Bar  Har 
bor,  England,  Trouville,  Homburg. 
She  had  become  a  Little  Sister  of  the 
Rich.  People  asked  her  on  yachts  a 
good  deal,  and  she  was  a  connoisseur 
in  country  houses.  She  was  at  no  ex 
pense  for  gloves  or  flowers,  and  what 
could  such  a  little  woman  eat  ?  The 
"  Honorable  Mrs.  Clay  "  was  the  glory 
of  the  society  newspapers,  and  it  was 
known  that  visiting  dukes  and  coun 
tesses  resorted,  on  arrival  in  America, 
to  the  sixth  story  of  the  Hotel  Guelph. 
Naturally,  New  Yorkers  asked  no  in 
convenient  questions. 

Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis,  who  had  often 
heard  of  the  famous  Mrs.  Clay,  had 
met  her  for  the  first  time  at  an  im- 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  13 

promptu  breakfast,  party,  assembled  in 
Lily's  honor,  at  Homburg,  by  an  ex 
alted  personage.  The  Personage  had 
seen  Lily,  and  thought  her — as  indeed 
she  was — the  prettiest  and  most  daz- 
zlingly  fresh  creature  of  the  year.  He 
brought  about  the  presentation  of  the 
girl  and  her  mamma,  and  with  much 
courtesy  bade  them  to  breakfast. 
Lily,  as  is  natural  in  a  girl  unjaded  by 
gayeties,  jumped  at  the  breakfast,  and 
appeared  there  in  a  pink  frock  and 
hat,  looking  like  a  rose  of  June.  With 
this  her  success  began  and  ended,  for 
the  willful  maiden,  to  her  mother's 
woe,  at  once  gave  unmistakable  token 
of  preferring  the  society  of  a  hand 
some  young  guardsman  to  that  of  the 
giver  of  the  feast.  Worse  still,  upon 
remonstrance,  had  not  the  terrible  gr! 


14  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

flatly  told  her  mother  that  she  did  not 
like  talking  to  the  Personage  because 
he  was  too  old,  and  that  equally  she 
dfo/like  talking  to  that  beautiful  young 
man  ?  These  things  are  written  in  the 
chronicle  of  Homburg  summer  gossip. 
Upon  Barbara  Clay,  who  was  a  former 
chum  of  his,  had  devolved  the  task  of 
consoling  the  Personage.  Then,  for 
the  first  time,  she  perceived  the  attrac 
tions  of  the  Miss  Lily  Curtis,  who  had 
thus  fallen,  as  it  were,  from  a  chariot 
of  fire  to  the  common  sidewalk.  The 
little  incident  of  Lily's  contumacy  at 
the  breakfast,  however,  was  cabled  to 
America  by  a  correspondent  of  the 
New  York  press,  and  in  the  end,  per 
haps,  better  served  the  purpose  of 
advertisement  of  a  coming  beauty  than 
otherwise.  Various  paragraphs  about 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  15 

the  young-  lady  had,  in  the  month  fol 
lowing,  been  diligently  circulated  by 
the  society  writers  for  the  best  known 
newspapers.  The  age,  complexion, 
hair,  height,  of  Miss  Floyd-Curtis  was 
now  definitely  known  at  every  club, 
corner  grocery,  and  wine-room  in  the 
metropolis.  A  description  of  the 
gowns  made  for  her  by  Worth  and 
Felix  had  even  found  its  way  before 
the  public.  One  enterprising  journal 
gave  a  Sunday  column  to  the  illus 
trated  catalogue  of  the  boots  and  shoes 
and  stockings  to  be  worn  by  the  fair 
maiden  in  walking,  riding,  and  danc 
ing  along  the  rose-strewn  path  await 
ing  her.  This  charming  article  was 
thoughtfully  laid,  by  one  of  his  clerks, 
before  poor  Eliphalet  F.  Curtis,  and 
had  almost  succeeded  in  making  the 


1 6  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

honest   father  break  a  blood-vessel   in 
fruitless  wrath. 

If  any  one  had  foretold  to  Mrs. 
Floyd-Curtis  that  her  return  voyage  to 
America  was  to  be  gilded  and  glorified 
by  the  intimacy  of  Mrs.  Bertie  Clay, 
she  would  not  have  believed  it.  But 
after  Homburg  the  ladies  had  met  in 
Paris.  Mrs.  Clay  was  gentleness  and 
thoughtfulness  itself  to  both  mother 
and  daughter.  Her  vote  decided 
every  toilet  made  for  either,  she  was 
seen  continually  in  their  carriages,  she 
introduced  them  to  more  fine  people 
than  they  had  ever  dreamed  of.  How 
perfectly  delightful,  therefore,  that  she 
should  have  decided  to  take  passage 
on  their  steamer.  For  Mrs.  Floyd- 
Curtis,  be  it  known,  although  she  pos 
sessed  every  external  evidence  of  being 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS, 


a  genuine  American  great  lady,  knew 
in  her  heart  that  her  place  was  not  yet 
made.  True,  she  had  done  much  in  a 
short  space,  but  there  were  still  women 
who  put  up  their  glasses  at  the  opera 
and  inquired  who  might  she  be.  There 
were  a  score  of  houses  never  open  to 
her  when  their  awnings  for  a  party 
were  run  out.  There  was  even  a  Mor- 
decai  in  her  very  gate,  Mrs.  Peter  van 
Shuter,  whose  town  dwelling  adjoined 
that  of  the  Curtis's,  a  consummate 
flower  of  fashion,  who  had  not  yet 
brought  herself  to  believe  in  the  exis 
tence  of  the  Floyd-Curtis  family. 

Six  years  before  the  present  voyage 
of  the  Etruria,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Curtis, 
with  their  two  children,  were  living  in 
a  quiet  cross-street  in  New  York,  con 
tent  with  the  modest  comforts  accru- 


1 8  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

ing  to  them  from  the  thriving  business 
in  dry-goods  occupying  the  head  of 
the  family  during  his  working  hours. 
Curtis,  like  a  thousand  and  one  re 
spectable  citizens  of  his  kind,  came  up 
town  on  a  street  car  regularly  at  the 
same  hour  every  evening,  let  himself 
into  his  own  door  by  his  latch-key, 
and  after  slight  preliminary  ablutions 
sat  down  to  his  dinner-table  in  morn 
ing  clothes,  too  tired  to  do  more  than 
carve  the  joint  or  the  pie,  and  well 
pleased  to  let  his  lively  wife  carry  the 
burden  of  conversation.  When  the 
children  were  in  bed  the  couple  would 
sit  beneath  the  Argand  gas-burner  in 
their  narrow,  home-bedecked  drawing- 
room,  he  reading  the  newspaper  until 
he  fell  off  in  a  doze,  she  doing  crewel- 
work,  or  trimming  a  hat  for  Lily. 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  19 

Their  wildest  idea  of  dissipation  was 
a  church  sociable  or  a  couple  of  tickets 
to  opera  or  theater.  Mrs.  Curtis,  an 
energetic,  ambitious  woman,  took  high 
stand  in  the  charitable  world,  where 
she  shone  in  presiding  over  ladies' 
meetings  and  in  regulating  missionary 
boards.  On  Sunday  it  was  their  cus 
tom  to  proceed  decently  to  church, 
followed  by  the  children,  and  after 
service  to  sit  down  to  an  early  dinner, 
in  order  that  the  cook  might  have  her 
afternoon  as  well  as  evening  out.  On 
the  same  day,  at  half-past  six  p.  M,, 
they  would  be  served  with  a  dish  of 
escalloped  oysters,  flanked  by  some 
slices  from  the  midday  roast,  under 
no  superintendence  of  domestic  save 
that  of  the  alternate,  then  engaged 
in  kitchen  duties  varied  by  running 


20  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

to  answer  the  front  bell.  After  sup 
per,  Mrs.  Curtis  herself  clearing  the 
table,  and  depositing  the  dishes  on 
the  dumb-waiter  with  a  quick  and  skill 
ful  hand,  the  family  would  unite  around 
the  melodeon  to  sing  Moody  and  San- 
key  hymns.  Curtis  verily  preferred 
these  strident  ditties,  as  piped  by  his 
two  young  ones,  to  anything  heard 
at  the  operas  or  concerts,  whither  his 
wife  occasionally  led  him  lamb-like  to 
the  slaughter. 

Thus,  content  and  cheerful,  twelve 
years  of  married  life  had  found  and 
passed  them  by.  Then  the  astonish 
ing  news  came  that  the  speculative  old 
father,  who  in  his  narrow  way  had 
doled  out  gifts  to  Mrs.  Curtis  from 
behind  the  desk  of  his  grocery  in  a 
Western  town,  had  died,  leaving  her  a 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  21 

fortune  such  as  even  in  New  York 
might  entitle  them  to  congratulatory 
comment.  Eliphalet  was  fairly  dazed 
when  he  tried  to  realize  the  income 
that  would  now  be  theirs  to  control. 
To  his  imperfectly  developed  civiliza 
tion  there  seemed  to  be  no  way  to 
spend  it.  Luxuries  did  not  appeal  to 
him  ;  of  amusements,  he  craved  none. 
The  world  of  books,  of  art,  was  sealed 
forever  from  his  sight.  In  this  crisis, 
as  usual,  the  American  wife  rose 
grandly  to  the  emergency. 

"Do?"  said  Mrs.  Curtis  briskly. 
"Well,  the  first  thing  is  to  rent  this 
house  and  go  to  Europe." 

From  that  trip  abroad  Eliphalet  re 
turned  bored  and  almost  cross.  His 
"store,"  his  clerks,  his  thick-skinned 
junior  partner,  seemed  to  him  worth 


22  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

all  lie  had  seen  across  the  water.  The 
day  he  put  on  again  his  office  coat  of 
worn  alpaca  the  merchant  vowed  a 
vow  : 

"  Amelia's  made  all  the  fool  she's 
going  to  out  of  me,"  he  said  to  him 
self.  "  Let  them  do  what  they  please 
with  old  man  Johnson's  money;  I've 
come  back  where  I  belong,  and  I  guess 
I've  come  to  stay." 

And  so,  in  spite  of  the  nagging  of 
his  wife,  he  doggedly  kept  on.  What 
Mrs.  Curtis  at  that  epoch  called  "  a 
society  lady,"  on  the  board  of  one  of 
her  infant  hospitals,  had  taken  them 
up  and  landed  them  beyond  their  for 
mer  level.  They  had  purchased  a  fine 
house,  furnished  in  admirable  taste  by 
a  family  who  had  no  longer  means  to 
support  it.  The  great  embarrassment 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  23 

was  new  servants  ;  even  Mrs.  Curtis 
was  awed  into  passing  humility  by 
a  head  man  who  had  lived  with  the 
Van  Shuters.  One  of  Eliphalet's  most 
overt  acts  of  resistance  to  social  evolu 
tion  was  his  way  of  eluding  the  atten 
dance  of  a  man  to  hold  his  coat  and 
another  to  open  his  front  door.  To 
avoid  this  superfluity  of  tribute  he 
would  gladly  have  gone  down  a  fire- 
escape.  Day  after  day  he  slunk  out  of 
his  lordly  portal  with  the  plate-glass 
swinging  doors,  not  to  regain  an  erect 
attitude  till  he  found  himself  rushing 
with  the  rest  of  the  mob  to  board  an 
elevated  train.  The  leveling  effect  of 
contact  with  the  brotherhood  of  hu 
manity  in  the  business  quarters  of  New 
York  is,  at  most  times,  able  to  counter 
act  even  the  depressing  influence  of 


24  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

being  served    in  whispers  by  the  ex- 
butler  of  a  Mrs.  Peter  van  Shuter. 

Early  in  the  upward  movement  it 
had  become  clear  that  foreign  travel 
was  yearly  indispensable.  Mrs.  Curtis 
loved  her  husband  after  her  fashion, 
but  she  loved  her  children  better,  and 
for  their  sakes  every  effort  must  be 
made.  She  had  the  wit  to  see  it  was 
not  her  father's  grocery  or  her  hus 
band's  dry-goods  that  stood  like  lions 
in  her  path.  Some  of  the  most  con 
spicuous  of  the  people  whose  lead  she 
longed  to  follow  had  sprung  from  the 
same  beginnings.  But  it  was  the  sec 
ond  generation  among  them  who  were 
lording  it  so  gallantly,  who  were  inter 
marrying  with  the  great  names  of  older 
civilizations,  who  were  creating  for 
their  families  the  high  place  Americans 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  25 


begin  to  crave  when  they  begin  to 
think.  Upon  her  girl  and  boy  this 
ambitious  woman  saw  she  must  pin  her 
fondest  hopes.  Hamilton,  a  stolid  and 
commonplace  youth  of  sixteen,  she  had 
succeeded  in  placing  at  school  at  Eton. 
Lily,  now  nineteen,  with  her  red  hair, 
hazel  eyes,  and  cream-and-strawberry 
complexion,  her  figure  erect  and  grace 
ful  as  if  the  only  pressure  it  had  known 
had  been  the  bark  of  a  wood  nymph's 
prison,  was  clearly  as  much  the  pride 
and  stay  of  the  Floyd-Curtis  house  as 
Nelson  was  of  England  at  Trafalgar. 

Naturally,  then,  the  companionship 
of  Mrs.  Clay,  who  with  graceful  varia 
tions  harped  upon  the  one  string,  was 
both  soothing  and  stimulating  to  the 
anxious  mother  on  the  eve  of  such  a 
trial  as  Lily's  coming  out.  "  I  am  not 


26  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

flattering — I  never  flatter,"  rippled  Mrs. 
Clay.  "  It  is  not  I  alone  who  think  so. 
Why,  the  Princess  Puzzuoli  says  that 
with  her  looks  and  your  fortune  Lily 
can  marry  anywhere  in  Europe — any 
where." 

Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis  shut  her  eyes.  A 
vista  opened  before  her  mental  vision 
that  was  a  whirl  of  rose  color.  "  Not 
on  the  Continent,  dear  Mrs.  Clay,"  she 
said  modestly.  "  England,  perhaps. 
At  any  rate,  that  is  what  /  should 
wish." 

"  England,  of  course,"  said  Mrs. 
Clay.  She  could  not  hide  an  inflec 
tion  of  contempt. 

"All  the  English  people  we've  met 
have  been  so  very  kind.  I  confess  I 
had  feared  that  Lily's  impetuous  ways — 
her— her— " 


THE  AtfGLOMAXIACS.  27 

" '  Flamboyant  Yankeeism,'  Mr. 
Gore-Thompson  called  it,"  suggested 
Mrs.  Clay. 

"  We  are  from  the  Southwest  origi 
nally,"  rather  stiffly  answered  Mrs. 
Floyd-Curtis,  who  took  Yankeeism  to 
cover  the  reproach  of  a  New  England 
birthplace.  "  My  daughter's  spirits  are 
certainly  high.  I  had  almost  feared  it 
would  go  against  her  in  such  circles  as 
we  have  moved  in." 

"  You  don't  know  the  English ! 
Mrs.  Tracy  Brooks,  who  set  out  last 
spring  to  conquer  London,  flatly  failed 
because  she  would  insist  upon  carry 
ing  out  her  ideal  of  a  Fifth  Avenue 
grande  dame.  She  had  to  go  home, 
having  acquired  an  English  accent 
and  an  English  curtsy — nothing  else  ! 
She's  been  sulking  ever  since.  Wont 


28  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

show  at  Newport,  or  anywhere.  Lady 
Bell,  now,  proved  her  good  sense. 
She  played  the  banjo  and  danced 
nigger  breakdowns  for  her  husband's 
noble  relatives,  and  her  success  is 
howling.  It's  quite  time  our  women 
should  find  out  that  we  can't  outshine 
theirs  on  their  own  ground.  It's  all 
rubbish  to  say  we  can,  in  the  face  of 
those  big,  still,  magnificent  creatures, 
with  jewels  we  can't  begin  to  match. 
They  don't  care  about  us  ;  they  think 
we  are  no  better  than  our  own  cooks 
and  chambermaids  ;  and  the  only  way 
for  us  to  leave  any  impression  on  their 
ranks  is  to  make  a  circus  of  ourselves, 
with  Barnum  and  Bailey  inscribed  upon 
our  banners." 

Mrs.   Floyd-Curtis    sighed.       Vague 
notions  of  Lily  in  fleshings  being  shot 


THE  ANGLOMAN:ACS.  29 

from  a  cannon  into  the  air  passed 
through  her  puzzled  brain — and  were 
dismissed  as  impracticable. 

"  When  you  consider  that  the  only 
American  periodical  they  read  much  in 
the  Athenaeum  Club — I  mean  Lord 
Salisbury  and  the  Bishops — is  '  Slings 
and  Arrows/"  said  Mrs.  Clay. 

"Is  it  possible  ?"  said  Mrs.  Floyd- 
Curtis.  She  was  conscious  of  a  copy 
of  that  much  discussed  journal  in  her 
dressing-bag,  bought  in  London  the 
day  she  came  away,  and  hidden  from 
Lily's  sight.  She  really  felt  now  that 
she  might  take  it  out. 

"  Well,  we  have  nothing  to  complain 
of  in  the  way  they've  treated  us,"  she 
went  on.  "I,  for  one,  adore  Eng 
land — but  my  husband  !  The  work  I 
had  even  to  carry  my  point  about  put- 


30  TilE  ANGLOMANIACB. 

ting  my  dear  boy  to  school  there!  Mr. 
Curtis  was  all  for  having  Hamilton  go 
to  St.  Paul's,  and  afterwards  to  Yale. 
If  we  could  have  got  him  in  at  Groton, 
now  :  I  admire  the  tone  at  Groton  ; 
the  boys'  mothers  are  all  in  the  same 
set.  But  I've  settled  him  at  Eton  ; 
and  though  he  doesn't  like  it  much 
as  yet,  he'll  be  certain  in  time  to  see 
what  advantages  he  has.  Mr.  Curtis 
pretends  it  will  unfit  him  for  living  in 
America — when  he's  in  the  same  form 
with  Mrs.  Peter  van  Shuter's  son  !" 

"  The  one  they  call  '  The  Great 
American  Terror '?"  said  gentle  Bar 
bara.  "  Harry  van  Shuter  is,  without 
exception,  the  most  badly  spoiled  cub 
it  has  been  my  privilege  to  meet. 
And  among  the  children  of  our  am 
bulating  Americans  one  has  cer- 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  3* 


tainly  a  range  of  choice  in  enfants 
gdtts." 

Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis  was  shocked.  It 
seemed  to  her  just  a  little  vulgar  to  call 
Mrs.  Peter's  son  a  cub. 

"Ah,  well!  Boys,  you  know,"  she 
said  apologetically.  "  No  one  can 
say  I  haven't  always  told  my  chil 
dren  when  they  did  wrong.  Often 
and  over  again  Mr.  Curtis  has  said, 
'  Do,  Amelia,  let  up  on  that  poor 
child.'  But  I  considered  that  when 
the  father  is  so  much  away  in  business 
the  children  ought  to  be  the  mother's 
care.  Whether  they  were  sick  or  well, 
I've  never  spared  myself.  Traveling 
about,  and  having  so  much  notice 
taken  of  them,  does  upset  children  a 
little  ;  there's  no  doubt  of  it.  I  shall 
never  forget  one  trying  winter  I  spent 


32  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

at  Cannes.  Both  of  my  young  ones 
seemed  possessed.  That  was  the 
winter  Lily  had  the  measles." 

A  veiled  but  rather  dangerous  look 
came  into  the  violet  orbs  of  Mrs.  Clay. 
In  her  secret  soul  she  was  tired  to 
death  of  Mr.  Curtis,  of  Hamilton's 
schooling,  and  of  Lily's  measles.  It 
was  only  a  shade  better  than  when 
Mrs.  Curtis  chanted  her  cooks,  butlers, 
first  men,  second  men,  third  men,  as 
sembled  from  various  nations  to  equip 
her  household. 

These  were  weary  moments  for  Bar 
bara.  The  cruelest  cut  of  fate  was  to 
deprive  her  of  the  power  to  repay 
social  martyrdom  by  insolence.  Oh, 
for  an  income  to  enable  her  to  be  un 
civil  when  she  would !  "  I  only  ask  to 
be  a  rich  duchess  for  one  short  hour/' 


THE  A.\'(;f.o.if.t.\'/,<cs.  33 

she  would  say  to  her  intimates.  "  In 
that  time  I  would  crush  all  the  people 
who  have  bored  and  patronized  me, 
and  then  die  happy." 

"  I  think  I  understand,"  she  now 
said,  with  admirable  patience.  "There 
are  always  difficulties  in  achieving 
high  results.  But  you  have  managed 
everything  so  well.  If  only  New  York 
were  not  so — what  shall  I  say  ? — hard 
to  count  upon.  With  a  debutante  the 
start  is  everything." 

"  The  newspapers,"  suggested  Mrs. 
Floyd-Curtis,  dropping  her  eyes  mod 
estly. 

"  Yes,  they  have  done  their  share. 
Strange  how  they  know  so  much," 
Barbara  said  guilelessly.  "  But  I've 
seen  many  a  newspaper  belle  who's 
gone  up  like  a  rocket  come  down 


34  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


like  the  stick  before  the  end  of  her 
first  year.  The  trouble  is  to  find 
out  what  New  Yorkers  really  expect 
and  ask.  There's  always  room  there, 
certainly.  They  crave  constant  novel 
ties.  When  people  come  back  to  town, 
and  the  opera  and  Delmonico  balls  be 
gin,  the  thirst  for  fresh  gossip  and  sen 
sation  in  the  way  of  a  new  girl  is 
something  extraordinary.  As  I  said, 
what  exactly  they  require  in  her  would 
be  hard  to  decide:  not  old  family;  that 
is  respected  vaguely  among  us,  and  is 
handled  like  a  piece  of  brittle  porce 
lain — i.e.  left  upon  the  shelf.  We  have 
them,  but  they  do  not  take  the  lead. 
Money  is  essential  ;  but  just  look  at 
the  amount  of  money  in  New  York, 
and  then  count  the  list  of  people  one 
cares  to  receive  or  to  visit.  Original- 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  35 


ity  and  wit  are  dangerous  to  own. 
The  young  men,  especially,  wont  en 
courage  them.  As  to  literary  tastes, 
they  are  impossible.  Did  you  ever 
hear  that  Mrs.  Peter  van  Shuter  wrote 
a  little  book  once,  before  she  was  mar 
ried  ?  The  Van  Shuters  hushed  it  up, 
and  the  affair  has  been  forgotten. 
Accomplishments — I  mean  the  usual 
thing — don't  count  for  much.  All  the 
foreigners  we  have  now  speak  English, 
and  prefer  to  do  so.  .  A  girl  in  the 
swim  hasn't  time  to  paint  or  to  draw, 
and  there  is  no  music  listened  to  from 
amateurs.  Beauty,  after  all,  and  a  cer 
tain  individuality  in  dress,  would  seem 
to  be  the  chief  requisites  for  success." 
"  I  always  say,  cling  to  Worth,  and 
he  will  never  play  you  false,"  inter 
jected  the  listener  devoutly. 


36  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

"  A  good  chef  is  a  powerful  backer," 
mused  Mrs.  Clay.  "  And  yet,  at  best, 
the  thing's  a  lottery.  Do  you  remem 
ber  how  Agassiz  used  to  construct  an 
entire  big  fish  out  of  a  single  scale  ? 
I've  seen  a  reputation  for  belleship  built 
up  on  a  bouquet  of  the  same  kind  of 
flowers  carried  by  a  plain  little  girl  to 
every  successive  ball ;  and  wasn't  Kitty 
Kershaw's  nose  tided  triumphantly  over 
her  first  season  because  her  mother 
started  some  dinner-dances  ?" 

Eagerly  as  Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis  was 
drinking  in  this  accumulated  wisdom, 
vitally  interested  though  she  was  in 
Miss  Kitty  Kershaw's  nose,  she  was 
not  quite  willing  to  appear  to  make 
a  direct  application  of  her  Mentor's 
generalities.  So  she  took  refuge 
in  the  tiny  white  mop  with  eyes 


THE   AXdl.OMAXlACS.  37 

and  claws  that  nestled  beneath  her 
rug. 

"  Bijou  !  Toutou  !  Mignon  !  Che- 
ri !  "  she  cried,  with  punctuating  kisses. 
"  Embrasse-moi  done'' 

It  was  a  triumph  of  mind  over  mat 
ter  when  Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis  acquired 
the  art  of  carrying  and  caressing  dogs 
in  public.  At  the  period  of  her  exo 
dus  from  her  first  married  home  in 
Twenty-sixth  Street,  East,  she  had 
been  known  to  speak  of  these  appen 
dages  of  fashion  as  "  nasty  little 
wretches  that  would  make  a  Christian's 
flesh  creep."  It  was  the  same  kind  of 
moral  victory  as  that  attained  by  her 
consenting  to  smoke  after-dinner  cigar 
ettes.  This  diversion,  introduced  by  a 
Russian  lady  of  rank  in  Washington, 
had  swept  like  a  prairie  fire  over  cer- 


38  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

tain  circles  of  American  society.  It 
was  a  sight  for  gods  and  men  to  be 
hold  the  strenuous  efforts  of  respecta 
ble  home-bred  matrons,  like  our  Mrs. 
Curtis,  to  assume  the  enjoying  non 
chalance  of  demeanor  befitting  this 
Oriental  exercise.  The  poor  woman 
had  to  struggle  with  physical  pangs,  as 
well  as  those  unwelcome  suggestions 
that  would  intrude  upon  her  inner  con 
sciousness  of  the  impression  this  exer 
cise  would  make  on  the  ladies  of  the 
church  sociable  could  they  behold  their 
former  sister  in  good  works. 

"  There  is  one  serious  dano-er  to  the 

o 

success    of    our    plans,"  resumed    Mrs. 
Clay.     "  And  that  is  a    fear  we  have 
always   with    us.  .  Lily    must    by    no 
means  be  allowed  to  fall  in  love." 
"  Good    gracious  !  "    exclaimed    the 


THE  ANGLOMANIACX  39 

mother.  "  Why,  I  don't  believe  she 
ever  thought  of  such  a  thing.  I  don't 
believe  it's  in  her." 

"  So  much  the  better.  This  being 
established,  I  see  no  room  for  you  to 
be  afraid.  Setting  out  with  the  aim 
that  Lily  is  to  make  a  grand  match, 
and  keeping  it  steadily  before  you, 
there's  no  such  word  as  fail." 

"  You  are  an  angel ! "  cried  Mrs. 
Curtis.  "  With  you  to  help  me,  I  feel 
as  if  I  could  bear  anything.  But 
you've  no  idea  what  I've  had  to  con 
tend  with  in  Mr.  Curtis." 

"  We  shall  manage  that,"  said  the 
oracle  comfortably.  The  obstacle  of  a 
mere  commonplace  American  husband 
did  not  seem  to  her  insurmountable. 

"You  dear,  dear  thing!"  went  on 
Mrs.  Curtis,  now  roused  to  real  grati- 


4°  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

tude.  "How,  oh,  how,  can  I  ever 
repay  you  ?  " 

This,  being  a  practical  soul,  Mrs. 
Clay  was  not  yet  prepared  to  answer. 
She  contented  herself  with  a  rapid  and 
masterly  review  of  schemes  for  the 
coming  campaign.  She  had,  before 
long,  brought  the  Curtises  home  from 
a  successful  spring  in  London,  had 
given  them  a  month  at  Newport,  and 
was  in  treaty  for  a  cottage  at  Lenox  a 
year  hence. 

"  But  I  tried  Lenox  two  years  ago," 
said  Mrs.  Curtis,  clouding  over. 
"  Took  the  Branwell  place,  paid  six 
thousand  dollars  rent,  and  staid  only 
two  months.  I  don't  think  the  air  of 
Lenox  exactly  suited  my — ah — bron 
chitis." 

"  Lenox  air  does  not  suit  everybody, 


THE  ANGLOMA.YIACS.  4* 

I  believe,"  Barbara  answered,  with  a 
faint,  inscrutable  smile.  (Of  course 
she  had  heard  all  about  the  celebrated 
failure  of  the  Floyd-Curtises  to  carry 
Lenox  by  assault.)  "It  may  agree 
better  with  your — ah — bronchitis  an 
other  year.  My  dear  Mrs.  Floyd- 
Curtis,"  she  added,  sitting  up  in  her 
chair,  attracted  by  a  movement  in  the 
group  of  reclining  passengers  on  the 
starboard  deck,  "  what  in  the  world  can 
that  daughter  of  yours  be  doing  ?" 

"  What — where  ?  "  cried  the  mother, 
who  found  it  hard  to  move  as  quickly 
as  of  yore. 

"  She  is  apparently  engaged  in  the 
effort  to  take  violent  possession  of  a 
steamer-chair  to  which  some  one  else 
lays  claim.  It  is,  in  fact,  what  may  be 
called  a  very  pretty  scrimmage." 


42  THE  ANGLOMAXIACS. 


"  A  scrimmage  ?  Where  is  Thomp 
son  ?  Lily  !  I  will  go  to  her,"  wailed 
the  near-sighted  mother,  struggling  to 
emerge  from  her  encumbering  rug. 

"  It  is  over,  and  Lily  is  victor  of  the 
glen,"  remarked  Mrs.  Clay.  "  And,  as 
I  live,  the  dispossessed  is  no  other  than 
the  Countess  of  Melrose." 

"  The  Countess  of  Melrose  ?  " 

"  Yes.  Didn't  you  know  she  is 
on  board  ?  She  is  on  her  way,  with 
her  maid,  to  visit  America.  There 
they  go,  those  two  dowdy  women. 
Lady  Melrose  is  the  dowdier  of  the 
two." 

"  Lily   will    be    the  death  of    me  !  " 
exclaimed  Mrs.  Curtis,  growing  redder 
than  was  becoming.     "  Oh,  Mr. — ah— 
Jencks!     If  you  will  be  so  very  kind. 
Just    say  to  my  daughter,  over  there, 


Till-:  AXGLOMAXIACS.  43 

that  I  will  thank  her  to  come  to  me  at 
once." 

"And  who  is  Mr.  Jencks?"  asked 
Mrs.  Clay,  with  a  note  of  animation  in 
her  voice. 

"  Somebody,  we  --ah  -  -  Lily  has 
picked  up  --  an  Englishman.  Why, 
Lily,  what  does  all  this  mean  ?  " 

"  Nothing,  mamma  dear,  but  that 
I've  twisted  the  tail  of  the  British  lion 
and  made  him  roar."  And  Lily,  dim 
pling  and  debonair,  stood  at  the  bar  of 
justice. 


II. 

"  WHAT  did  you  do  to  Lady  Mel- 
rose  ?  "  demanded  Lily's  mother,  armed 
with  the  utmost  dignity  at  her  com 
mand,  and  sitting  up  so  straight  that 
all  the  little  cushions  slipped  away  from 
her  backbone  and  rushed  like  an  ava 
lanche  to  the  Etrurias  deck. 

"To  tell  you  the  truth,"  said  Lily, 
with  delightful  nonchalance,  "  it  was 
what  the  old  thing  did  to  me.  I'd 
picked  out  a  lovely  warm  spot,  and 
put  a  chair  in  it  with  my  rug,  and 
had  gone  below  to  get  Miss  Bridget." 

"  Miss  Bridget  ?  " 

"  Yes,  the  Grays'  nursery  governess. 
She's  so  awfully  sick  and  cross,  I  hadn't 

45 


4<5  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

the  heart  to  leave  her  to  herself,  so  I 
just  tipped  a  steward,  and  he  was 
stumbling  upstairs,  holding  on  to  the 
old  lady,  who  was  behaving  rather  like 
a  porcupine  to  him " — A  suppressed 
giggle  was  heard  at  this.  It  came  from 
the  strange  young  man,  who  had  reluct 
antly  lingered  near  the  group,  ordered 
by  Lily  to  stay  by  her  and  back  her  up. 

"  Go  on  ! "  snorted  Mrs.  Floyd- 
Curtis. 

"  Then  I  saw  those  two  women 
swooping  down  upon  my  chair,  and  I 
swooped  too,  and  said  they  couldn't 
have  it.  She  said  she  would,  and  that 
she  was  the  Countess  of  Melrose." 

"  What  more  ? "  said  her  mother, 
with  a  hollow  groan. 

"There  wasn't  much  more,"  an 
swered  Lily,  unabashed.  "  I  suppose 


THE   ANGLOMANIACS.  47 


she  expected  me  to  curtsy  and  back 
off;  but  when  she  saw  I  didn't  yield 
the  point,  she  seized  my  chair  and 
shook  it,  and  said  a  few  nasty  things 
to  me  about  my  impudence.  So,  to 
end  the  matter,  I  sat  down  in  it  my 
self  and  looked  her  in  the  face  as  Hail 
Columbia  as  you  please." 

"  Lily  !  "  sighed  her  afflicted  parent. 

"  That  scattered  her.  The  maid  be 
haved  rather  better  than  the  mistress, 
but  not  so  very  much.  And  there's 
Miss  Bridget  in  the  chair.  She  says 
she's  feeling  better,  praise  the  saints." 

It  was  impossible  to  resist  the  girl's 
audacious  drollery.  "  Poor  old  Lady 
Melrose!"  said  Mrs.  Clay,  laughing 
outright.  As  to  the  young  man  look 
ing  on,  he  began  to  laugh  too,  but  a 
glance  at  the  majestic  scorn  in  the  face 


48  THE   ANGLOMANIACS. 

of  Lily's  mother  froze  him  to  good  be 
havior. 

"  And  where,  may  I  ask,  was  Thomp 
son  ?  Her  orders  are  not  to  lose  you 
from  her  sight." 

"In  her  berth,  praying  to  be  thrown 
overboard,  mamma ;  and  big  stupid 
James  is  just  as  bad.  Your  maid, 
Leonie,  is  holding  on  by  her  eyelids, 
but  she'll  soon  be  down.  You'll  have 
to  let  me  wait  on  you,  dear,  and  do 
your  hair,  and  all." 

She  leaned  over,  with  an  impetuous 
movement,  and  kissed  her  mother  on 
the  cheek.  One  observer  thought  a 
caress  like  that  might  melt  the 
Sphinx — so  ripe,  so  rare,  the  lips  that 
dropped  it. 

And  now,  lest  this  story  should  be 
gin  to  have  the  effect  of  those  marches 


THE  AXGLOMANTACS.  49 


of  Amazons    on    the    staoe    of    comic 

O 

opera,  after  which  the  appearance  of  a 
male  peasant  or  two  is  a  genuine  relief 
to  the  spectator,  we  will  take  up  the 
tale  of  Mr.  Jencks — the  young  man 
Lily  had"  picked  up."  Only  the  wrath 
ful  preoccupation  of  Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis 
over  the  affair  with  Lady  Melrose 
(what  a  prize  would  have  been  an 
acquiescent  countess  to  arrive  with  in 
New  York,  to  nail  at  her  mast-head, 
so  to  speak,  and  flaunt  before  repor 
ters  and  society  at  large)  could  have 
made  that  lady  speak  so  slightingly  of 
an  authentic  introduction.  Mr.  Jencks 
had  been  presented  to  the  mother  and 
daugTiter  at  Liverpool  by  a  well-known 
American  gentleman  who  had  come  to 
see  him  off.  He  was  certified  by  this 
enthusiastic  friend  to  be  a  fellow  of 


5°  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

Oxbridge,  a  pet  disciple  of  Buxton, 
and  a  leading-  light  in  the  younger 
world  of  science,  as  well  as  "  the  best 
all-around  Englishman  I  know."  Mr. 
Jencks  was  going  out  to  America  to 
take  a  professorship  that  had  been 
offered  him  in  a  rising  "fresh-water" 
university.  He  was  a  tall,  broad- 
chested  man  of  twenty-eight,  very 
blond,  with  deep-set  blue  eyes,  and 
yellow  hair  already  growing  thin 
around  the  temples  and  upon  the 
crown.  His  clothes  were  well  cut,  and 
he  wore  them  with  sufficient  ease  to 
show  that  he  did  not  despise  the  con 
ventionalities  of  life.  His  manner  was 
reserved,  not  shy ;  and  patience  and 
sturdy  determination  were  written  in 
the  lines  around  his  mouth.  The  real 
reason  of  Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis's  coolness 


Tirr  A.  \GLOV.  \ 


toward  this  rather  prepossessing 
young  man  was  that,  early  in  their  ac 
quaintance,  he  had  had  occasion  to 
speak  of  himself  as  belonging  to  the 
middle  class  of  English  society.  Mrs. 
Floyd-Curtis  wondered  at  his  want  of 
pride  in  making  this  damaging  admis 
sion,  and  in  her  heart  determined  to 
drop  him  as  soon  as  the  voyage  was 
over.  Not  so  Miss  Lily.  At  first  he 
had  provoked  her  by  a  sort  of  off-hand 
indifference  to  her  charms.  He 
showed  her  no  gallantries,  let  her  wait 
upon  herself,  and  had  plainly  no  idea  of 
the  immediate  yielding  of  homage  to 
maiden  sovereignty  with  which  the 
American  girl,  despite  her  disadvan 
tages  of  foreign  travel,  was  entirely 
familiar  in  the  young  men  of  her  own 
nationality.  When  at  sunset  they  had 


52  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


leaned  together  over  the  rail,  the  de 
voted,  if  seasick,  Thompson  hovering 
somewhere  in  the  rear,  and  the  wide 
horizon  had  lighted  up  with  tenderest 
radiance  a  sea  of  summer  calm,  it  did 
not  occur  to  Mr.  Ernest  Jencks  that 
the  occasion  called  for  modification  of 
his  usual  matter-of-fact  demeanor. 
When  Lily  with  the  demurest  face  in 
the  world,  asked  him  a  question  about 
zoology,  Jencks  launched  into  a  dis 
sertation  that  puzzled  at  first,  then 
ended  by  fairly  charming  her  awaken 
ing  intelligence. 

"  I  didn't  think  you  could  make  me 
understand  a  bit  of  it,"  she  answered, 
when  he  had  ceased. 

"  Considering  I  am  o^oinsf  to  make 

o  o  o 

my  bread  and  butter  by  an  appeal  to 
concrete  ignorance —  '  he  observed. 


THE  AXGLOUANIACS.  S3 


"  Thank  you,"  interrupted  Lily. 
"That's  very  gracefully  put.  I  sup 
pose  it's  because  you  are  an  all-around 
Englishman,  isn't  it  ?  I  don't  know, 
on  the  whole,  but  what  I  prefer  a  one 
sided  Yankee." 

"  I  suppose  I'm  not  very  mannerly," 
Jencks  said,  the  blood  coming  into  his 
face  a  little.  "  To  tell  you  the  truth,  I 
am  no  great  hand  at  conversation  with 
young  ladies." 

"No,  really?"  cried  the  unsparing 
Lily.  "  Is  this  one  of  those  'germs  of 
truth  hidden  under  a  mountain  of  tra 
dition  '  you  told  me  of  ?" 

"  I  mean  I  have  hardly  had  time 
to  cultivate  drawing-room  graces,"  he 
went  on  sturdily.  "  My  sisters  are 
about  the  only  girls  I  know  well,  and 
they  have  never  been  in  society.  The 


54  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


life  you  lead  is  as  much  like  theirs  as 
an  exotic  orchid  resembles  a  bit  of 
mountain  .heather." 

"  If  you  had  seen  me  at  lunch  to-day 
you  wouldn't  have  said  I  am  an  air- 
plant,"  laughed  Lily.  "  Another  time 
I  shall  ask  you  to  tell  me  more  about 
those  bits  of  heather.  Now  I  am  going 
below,  to  see  if  poor  mamma  needs 
anything.  They  say  we  are  to  have  a 
taste  of  rough  weather,  and  I  begin  to 
feel  an  icy  nip  in  the  air." 

"  I  am  prepared  for  anything  after 
my  voyage  last  January,  when  I  came 
over  to  prospect  about  settling  in 
America.  That  was  a  gale  !  Our  ship 
pitched  into  it  headlong  directly  after 
we  left  Queenstown.  Thermometer 
below  eighteen  ;  the  masts  and  rigging 
looking  like  blown  glass  with  icicles ; 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  55 


and  hail,  snow,  and  electricity  all  in 
the  same  day." 

"  It  was  a  western  welcome,  the  kind 
we  reserve  for  English  professors  of 
biology,"  the  girl  said  as  she  quitted 
him. 

The  weather  had  changed  suddenly 
from  good  to  bad,  and  thereafter  the 
North  Atlantic  disgraced  itself  by 
pranks  of  the  most  exasperating  na 
ture.  The  great  pitching  hotel,  with 
its  myriad  slaves  of  the  lamp  ready  to 
do  the  bidding  of  the  modern  Aladdin 
and  his  wife,  became  a  minor  purga 
tory.  The  well  people  resented  the 
intolerable  nuisance  of  the  sick,  and 
the  sick  cherished  an  enduring  griev 
ance  against  the  insulting  ones  who 
kept  their  balance.  The  tenderest  ties 
of  humanity  were  strained  almost  to 


5 6         '  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

bursting.  Husbands,  models  on  land, 
who  in  this  exigency  of  ailing  wives 
and  nurses  found  themselves  obliged 
to  wash,  dress,  and  entertain  their  off 
spring,  were  tempted  to  renounce  in  a 
lump  the  joys  of  matrimony.  Wives, 
elsewhere  as  coquettish  as  they  were 
fond,  made  scarecrows  of  themselves 
and  relapsed  into  mere  complaining 
bundles  of  old  clothes.  People  who 
affected  any  pretense  at  dressing  as  in 
ordinary  days  did  so  in  a  series  of  mad 
plunges,  going  headlong  into  their  gar 
ments  as  an  acrobat  ^oes  through  a 

o  o 

paper  hoop.  Moodiness,  selfishness, 
savageness,  all  those  ugly  traits  of 
human  nature  in  fair  weather  tucked 
out  of  sight,  were  brought  from  their 
places  of  concealment  and  wrapped 
around  their  victims  like  a  pall 


THE  ANGLOMAN1ACS.  57 


In  this  crisis,  to  the  survivors  who 
did  not  drink,  or  smoke,  or  gamble 
twelve  hours  out  of  the  twenty-four, 
the  only  bearable  place  of  resort  was, 
of  course,  the  deck.  Sometimes,  when 
rain  was  drizzling-  on  an  angry  rolling 
sea,  Lily  Curtis,  cased  all  in  water 
proofs  that  clung  like  the  plumage  of  a 
duck,  ventured  out,  to  the  admiration 
of  beholders.  Her  bright  face,  with 
the  color  coming  into  it  in  flashes  like 
northern  lights,  \vas  next  best  to  a  ray 
of  sunshine,  people  said.  And  her 
spirits  were  unending.  The  more 
glum  and  hateful  other  passengers 
became,  the  more  fun  and  frolic  took 
possession  of  her  soul.  Jcncks,  who 
was  oftener  her  partner  than  any  one 
else,  thought  she  was  like  Undine,  and 
expected  to  see  her  dissolve  and  recede 


58  THE  ANGLOUANIACS. 


under  one  of  the  big  foam  fountains 
in  their  wake.  She  amused  him,  she 
roused  him,  the  more  so  when  expe 
rience  settled  his  first  doubt  as  to 
whether  such  exuberance  of  spirits 
could  be  natural  in  a  person  able  to 
form  her  own  opinion,  and  both  world 
ly-wise  and  clear-headed  to  a  remarka 
ble  degree.  Thanks  to  the  detestable 
weather,  there  never  was,  and  never 
would  be  in  either  of  their  lives,  such 
an  opportunity  for  two  young  people 
to  enter  into  sudden  intimacy.  Cer 
tainly  poor  Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis  must 
have  been  abandoned  to  her  misery,  or 
she  would  have  guarded  against  these 
alarming  long  talks,  where  the  only 
chaperons  were  a  sailor  or  so,  distinctly 
unimpressed  by  the  fact  that  one  of 
the  water-proof  specters  was  a  mem- 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  59 

her  of  the  British  middle  class.  What 
most  astonished  the  grave  young  pro 
fessor  was  when  he  found  himself 
babbling  like  a  school-girl  about  his 
own  affairs. 

"  Tell  me  about  your  home,  your 
people,"  Lily  had  said,  when,  heaped 
up  with  rugs  in  a  comparatively  shel 
tered  nook,  they  defied  a  whistling 
northwester. 

"  We  are  the  most  unimportant 
family  in  the  Kingdom,"  he  answered, 
"if  you  consider  that  I  am  the  eldest 
hope  ;  that  there  are  thirteen  children  ; 
that  my  people  could  just  scrape  to 
gether  funds  enough  to  take  me  through 
the  university  ;  and  that  all  the  rest 
have  had  to  scramble  along  on  what 
was  left." 

"  Goodness  !  "    exclaimed,  or  rather 


60  THE    INGLOMANIACS. 


shrieked,  Lily,  above  the  commotion  r  f 
the  elements.  (The  pitch  of  their 
conversation  was  like  that  at  a  New 
York  "  tea.")  "  And  ten  of  them  are 
boys  ?  " 

"  Yes.  One  of  my  sisters,"  responded 
the  sonorous  tones  of  Jencks,  "is  a 
teacher  in  a  girls'  college." 

"  A  teacher  ?  And  you  are  one,  too  ? 
It  never  occurred  to  me  that  I  could 
sit  down  in  cold  blood,  on  the  Etriiria, 
and  talk  with  a  teacher.  I've  always 
thought  of  them,  you  know,  as  persons 
one  is  glad  to  get  away  from,  like  the 
dentist  when  you  have  done  with  him." 

"  It  will,  fortunately,  not  be  long  be 
fore  you  have  the  opportunity,"  said 
Jencks  huffily,  as  he  rose  up  from  his 
chair. 

"  Sit    down,    please.      If    you    don't 


THE  AXGI.OMAXIACS.  6 1 


keep  your  feet  on  my  chair  I  shall  be 
over  in  the  lee-scuppers,  or  whatever 
the  thino-s  are.  I  can't  help  thinking 
what  an  amiable  family  yours  must  be 
if  they  are  all  like  you.  Fancy  thir 
teen  of  you,  all  together,  firing-  up  like 
that !  Now  tell  me  about  the  other 
girls.  I'm  sorry  I  compared  you  with 
the  dentist." 

Jencks  drew  a  long  breath,  and  re 
covered  himself. 

44  My  second  sister  is  at  home,  help 
ing  my  mother,  who,  by  the  way,  is  a 
wonderful  little  woman  for  fifty-odd, 
and  looks  younger  than  her  eldest  girl. 
The  third,  Carrie,  threatens  to  study 
medicine.  Our  home  is  a  rambling  old 
place,  on  the  outskirts  of  a  country 
town,  where  my  father  has  spent  his 
life  as  a  hard-working  doctor.  All  <  f 


62  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

the  boys  have  facls,  and  are  dreadfully 
self-willed.  Some  of  us  are  to  be 
found  in  every  quarter  of  the  globe. 
Aleck,  the  youngest,  who  is  fourteen. 

J  o 

and  Carrie,  both  expect  to  come  out 
to  me  in  America  when  I  can  make 
a  place  for  them." 

"  In  Illyria,  Michigan  ?"  Lily  asked. 
"  Ever  since  you  told  me  you  are 
going  to  settle  there  I  have  been  try 
ing  to  bring  my  geographical  knowl 
edge  to  bear  on  it,  but  with  no  suc 
cess.  I  give  Illyria  up.  It's  too  far 
west.  I  can't  imagine  it." 

o 

"  Of  course  you  give  it  up.  Such  a 
dull  little  town,  with  a  newly  started 
university  as  its  central  point,  has  no 
right  to  expect  recognition  at  your 
hands.  Only,  if  a  flood  or  a  blizzard 
should  happen  to  sweep  me  out  of  time, 


THE  ANGLOMAN1ACS.  63 


please  read  about  it  in  the  newspaper, 
and  say,  '  Dear  me  !  I  remember  him 
perfectly.  He  was  a  passenger  with  us 
in  the  Etruria?  ' 

"  Nonsense  !  Tell  me  more  about 
your  home." 

"  There  is  absolutely  nothing  that 
would  interest  you.  All  the  excitement 
of  my  life  has  come  from  accomplished 
work.  When  other  men  of  my  con 
temporaries  have  been  enjoying  them 
selves  in  a  thousand  ways  I've  been 
plodding.  My  people,  as  I  told  you, 
are  workers  too,  and  probably  always 
will  be." 

"You  have  never  had  any  pleas 
ures?"  she  said,  with  sudden  gentle 
ness. 

"  Bless  you,  yes  !  All  that  was  good 
for  me.  A  walking  tour,  now  and 


64  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

again,  in  England  or  Wales  or  Switzer 
land,  and  a  trip  to  Paris  and  Edinburgh, 
where  I  was  sent  on  special  missions. 
I  suppose  you  can't  understand  pleas 
ure  that  does  not  spring  from  the 
expenditure  of  unlimited  dollars." 

"  That  is  very  rude,  and  far  from 
correct.  Long  ago,  when  I  was  a  little 
girl,  we  were  quite  poor,  and  our  home 
was  a  very  plain  one.  I  believe  before 
my  mother  was  married  hers  was  even 
plainer.  My  father  goes  down  town  to 
his  work  every  day  now,  just  as  he  did 
before  my  mother  inherited  her  fortune. 
I  suppose  it's  in  the  blood,  but  I'll  have 
to  tell  the  truth  :  none  of  those  idle 
men  who  dress  themselves  three  times 
a  day  like  women,  and  try  to  kill  time, 
interest  me  in  the  least.  I  have  the 
most  plebeian  taste  for  workers." 


HIE  ANGLOMAN1ACS.  65 


"  Wait  till  you  become  a  great  lady 
on  your  own  account  and  you'll  have 
work  enough  to  suit  you.  Do  you 

o  J  J 

think,  having  eyes,  I  see  not  for  what 
they  destine  you  ?  And  that,  but  for 
the  accident  of  all  your  guardians 
being  seasick,  you'd  no  more  be  allowed 
to  give  so  much  of  your  society  to  a 
penniless  brain-worker  than  you  would 
to  that  sailor  yonder  with  the  rope  ?  " 

\Yhat  was  this  note  of  feeling  in  his 
tone?  Lily  stole  a  glance  at  him,  and 
felt  a  little  scared. 

"  Well,  I  like  the  box-seat  of  a  four- 
in-hand,"  she  said  ;  "and  a  big  steam 
yacht  is  an  earthly  paradise.  Perhaps 
I  wasn't  quite  sincere  when  I  said  I 
never  fancied  any  of  the  idlers.  There 
is  one  exception." 

"Ah,    there     is     one     exception?" 


66  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

grumbled  Mr.  Jencks  in  his  yellow 
mustache. 

"  Yes.  This  is  the  hour  for  tender 
confidences.  I  enjoy  roaring  out  my 
secrets.  It  was  the  young  guardsman 
I  met  at  the  Prince's  breakfast.  He 
was  as  handsome  as  a  picture,  and  so 
gay  and  good-natured." 

"Good-natured,  I  dare  say,  with  all 
the  women  flattering  him." 

"  That  they  did  flatter  him!  We  all 
did.  We  hung  upon  his  words.  He 
looked  as  if  when  we  had  done  admir 
ing  him  he  would  go  back  into  a  glass 
case.  He  told  me  about  his  other 
clothes,  and  gave  me  the  gardenia 
from  his  buttonhole.  Unfortunately, 
mamma  took  me  away  from  Homburg 
the  next  day.  Since  then  I  can  only 
dream  of  him." 


THE  AKGLOMAXIACS.  67 

"  I  say,  what  a  quiz  you  are  !  "  said 
Mr.  Jencks. 

That  afternoon  she  made  him  talk 
again  of  his  household.  Witched  from 
him  by  her  eyes  of  hazel  were  the  sim 
ple  annals  of  his  life.  His  hopes,  his 
ambitions,  all  but  his  successes,  were 
unrolled  as  if  upon  a  scroll.  It  did  not 
occur  to  him  to  tell  her  about  the 
monograph  that  had  set  all  London 
talking. 

"  I  don't  know  why  it  pleases  me  so 
much  to  hear  these  things,"  she  said 
nai'vely.  "  Probably  because  it  is  so 
different  from  anything  I  have  met. 
To  have  you  describe  the  country 
town,  and  your  father  in  the  gig,  and 
the  boys,  and  Carrie,  is  like  one  of 
those  lovely  stories  by  Mrs.  Ewing  or 
'  Miss  Toosey.' ' 


68  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

"  At  least  I've  told  you  all  there  is. 
I  give  you  three  days  from  the  mo 
ment  of  landing  in  New  York  to  forget 
it.  Oh,  I  shant  growl  about  it  if  you 
do.  I  know  what  to  expect.  Cer 
tainly  you  may  judge  what  a  humdrum 
lot  we  are,  and  how  utterly  beyond  the 
range  of  a  fashionable  young  lady  like 
yourself,  and  repent,  at  your  leisure,  of 
an  even  passing  interest  in  the  house 
of  Jencks." 

A  passing  interest  ?  For  the  first 
time  in  Lily's  maiden  life  she  felt  it 
difficult  to  raise  her  eyes  to  meet  those 
of  a  man.  A  queer,  incomprehensible, 
but  not  unpleasant  thrill  ran  through 
her  veins.  And  then,  to  her  dismay, 
these  phenomena  of  nature  were  com 
pleted  by  the  rising  of  a  blush.  Every 
young  woman  knows  what  a  vile,  un- 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  69 

welcome,  overmastering  thing  a  blush 
is  when  it  "  gives  away "  a  feeling. 
The  professor  saw,  wondered,  and  to 
the  shame  of  his  eight-and-twenty 
years,  of  his  Oxbridge  fellowship,  of 
his  life  vowed  to  science,  Mr.  Ernest 
Jencks  blushed  too. 

Lily  was  the  first  to  pull  herself 
together. 

"  I  forgot  to  tell  you  what  I  heard 
last  night  in  the  room  next  to  mine," 
she  began,  in  her  old  mischievous  way. 
"  They  are  a  couple  returning  from 
their  bridal  tour.  She  said  :  '  Darling, 
I  can't  rest  at  all.  I  believe  there  are 
crumbs  of  biscuits  in  my  berth.'  He 
said  :  '  Try  to  sleep,  darling.  It  must 
be  imagination.  I  am  quite  comfort 
able  here.'  Presently  she  moaned : 
'  Oh  !  I  wish  I  had  never  left  my 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


mother.  I  am  so  perfectly  sure  there 
are  crumbs.'  Then  there  was  a  deep 
groan  from  the  upper  berth.  '  Hang 
it  all,  Maud  !  if  you  get  me  down 
from  here  there's  no  telling  when  I'll 
get  to  sleep  again.'  Maud  burst  into 
sobs,  and  I  got  up  and  banged  my  door. 
There  was  a  sudden  awful  hush." 

Smoking  a  pipe  to  himself,  as  he 
strode  up  and  down  the  deck  at  night 
fall,  Jencks  was  a  prey  to  the  most  dis 
tracting  reflections.  If  I  were  to  write 
several  pages  in  elaborating  them  for 
the  benefit  of  my  readers,  it  would  be 
only  to  arrive  at  an  inevitable  and 
lame  conclusion  —  the  poor  young  man 
had  fallen  head  over  ears  in  love. 
His  acceptance  of  this  fact  as  definite 
had  the  disastrous  result  of  infuriating 
him.  Softer  suggestions,  imaginings 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  7  I 

sweeter  than  honey  of  Hymettus,  were 
swept  away  in  a  torrent  of  self-con 
tempt.  This  laughing  witch  with  the 
bronze-red  hair,  the  red-and-white  com 
plexion,  the  look  of  vigorous  health, 
the  outspoken  fearlessness  of  charac 
ter,  whom  at  first  he  had  looked  on 
merely  in  the  light  of  a  pleasing 
variety  upon  the  tedium  of  the  voy 
age — how  had  she  come  to  grapple  his 
heart  with  cables  stronger  than  those 

o 

that  beneath  the  Atlantic  surge  link 
two  continents  together?  Beside  these 
bonds  all  others  were  as  threads  of 
cotton  ;  and,  as  far  as  he  could  see, 
would  always  be  so.  That  was  the 
rub  !  Jencks  knew  his  own  tenacity  of 
purpose.  He  had  never  given  up  the 
thing  he  set  his  mind  to  do.  He  was 
a  man  in  his  maturity,  no  infant  crying 


72  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

for  the  moon.  This  was  the  first  pas 
sion  of  his  life.  And  the  object  of  it 
was  an  American  heiress,  hawked  by 
the  newspapers  as  one  of  the  best 
prizes  in  the  matrimonial  market,  and 
surrounded  by  a  body-guard  of  ambi 
tious  friends  bent  upon  lifting  her 
into  high  place  in  the  world's  society  ! 

Jencks  was  dripping  with  wet,  tired 
with  tramping,  when  he  turned  in  to 
go  below.  In  passing  the  smoking- 
room  he  was  hailed  by  an  acquain 
tance,  a  good-natured  clubman  of  New 
York,  who  besought  him  to  join  in  a 
night-cap  of  "  hot  Scotch."  To  this 
allurement  he  could  but  yield,  and, 
lighting  another  pipe  of  tobacco,  sat 
down  in  not  particularly  jovial  spirits. 

"  A  devilish  dull  voyage,  this,"  re 
marked  Mr.  Banting,  known  to  his 


THE  ANGLOMAXIACS.  73 

friends  as  Tommy.  He  was  rather 
stout,  but  active  on  his  feet,  and  was 
renowned  as  a  conductor  of  cotillons. 
'  I  don't  know  that  I  ever  made  a 
cl  ]ler  crossing.  The  only  woman  on 
board  who  could  help  to  pass  away  the 
time  is  Mrs.  Bertie  Clay,  and  she's 
taken  this  trip  to  have  tonsilitis  in, 
confound  it !  By  the  way,  I  see  you've 
'•'•'  't  off  with  the  Floyd-Curtis  girl.  I 
ne»  ;:  ~ould  myself,  but  I've  kept  in 
with  the  mother  They  say  they've 
engaged  the  Vanderwinker's  chef." 

Jencks  kept  his  mouth  as  close  shut 
as  a  clam,  but  Tommy  liked  to  do  the 
talking. 

"  Though  she's  not  my  sort,"  went 
on  Mr.  Banting,  "  I'm  bound  to  say  I 
think  the  girl  will  win.  There  are 
several  fellows,  married  and  single, 


74  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


ready  to  '  fasten  on,'  and  send  her 
stock  up  in  the  market.  Of  course, 
though,  the  old  woman  will  want  to 
marry  her  to  a  title.  It's  getting 
worse  than  ever  in  our  country.  That 
list  the  Tribune  published  the  other 
day,  of  American  women  entitled  to  a 
place  in  the  nobility  of  Europe,  has 
turned  the  heads  of  half  our  feminines. 
If  the  true  story  of  some  of  those 
matches  had  been  printed,  in  sympa 
thetic  ink,  you  know, — dodge  of  the 
nihilists, — between  the  lines,  I  don't 
think  it  would  have  made  the  mothers 
grin.  Take  Mrs.  Bertie  Clay,  for  one. 
Why,  that  little  woman  has  been 
through  scenes — Clay's  off  somewhere 
with  the  wife  of  a  fellow-officer.  He 
daren't  show  his  face  in  England  since 
he  was  kicked  out  of  his  club  for  cheat- 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  75 


ing.  Look  at  the  Princess  Puzzuoli,— 
Anita  Levering  that  was, — a  sweet, 
pretty  girl  as  ever  I  saw  when  she 
came  out  ten  years  ago.  I  saw  her  in 
Paris  this  summer,  looking  like  a 
hag — the  wrinkles,  and  so  on,  filled 
with  paint  and  powder.  She's  per 
fectly  lifeless,  and  no  wonder.  When 
the  prince  had  spent  the  money  she 
brought  him  he  borrowed  hers,  and 
tried  tc  drain  her  father,  and  at  last 
beat  her  and  locked  her  in  her  bed 
room  closet.  Of  course  they  do  not 
live  together  now.  Her  father  keeps 
her  apartment  in  Paris  on  condition 
that  she  refuses  to  receive  the  prince, 
and  the  prince  has  an  allowance  to 
keep  away.  Poor  girl ! — she  says  she 
will  never  come  home  again  ;  and  I 
don't  blame  her," 


76  THE  ANGLOMAXIACS. 

Mr.  Banting-  took  a  sip  of  hot 
Scotch  to  hide  his  feelings.  It  was 
well  known  he  had  been  once  a  suitor 
for  Miss  Loverinof's  hand. 

o 

"  Those  are  but  two  of  a  dozen 
I  could  name.  And  yet  the  title 
hunt  goes  on  with  undiminished  zeal. 
Every  little  sprig  of  nobility  they  send 
over  to  us  from  the  other  side  is 
made  much  of  in  New  York,  and  then 
passed  along  through  the  other  cities. 
Blame  it,  those  fellows  walk  on  flow 
ers  !  The  big  fish  take  what  liberties 
they  please,  and  the  little  ones  swim 
after.  Now  isn't  it  an  infernal  shame, 
you  know  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know.  I'm  not  by  way  of 
bothering  about  such  matters,"  Jencks 
answered  coldly. 

"Eh?     I  understand.     Science  and 


THE  AXCLOMAXIACS.  77 

that  sort  of  thing  is  your  lay-out.  My 
dear  fellow,  you  may  congratulate 
yourself.  You  are  preserved  from  the 
snares  of  the  mammas.  A  commoner 
is  absolutely  safe.  If  you'll  excuse  it, 
American  girls  don't  want  'em.  Our 
girls  have  got  uncommonly  long  heads. 
They  see  that  they're  much  better  off 
married  in  their  own  country  unless 
marriage  means  the  top  of  the  heap  in 
yours.  The  stories  that  come  to  us  of 
the  few  girls  who  have  got  husbands 
not  in  the  first-chop  society  in  England 
are  pretty  doleful.  To  be  at  the  tail- 
end  never  suited  a  young  woman  with 
the  habits  and  expectations  of  a  New 
York  belle.  Boston,  perhaps,  wouldn't 
mind  it,  particularly  if  there  were  litera 
ture  or  science  thrown  in.  I'm  not 
sure  about  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore 


7 8  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

Some  time,  when  I  have  leisure,  I  mean 
to  go  to  Philadelphia,  and  then  I  can 
find  out.  But  I'm  certain,  absolutely 
so,  about  New  Yorkers." 

Launched  in  his  favorite  subject, 
Tommy  was  good  to  prattle  till  forci 
bly  withdrawn  from  it.  Jencks  puffed 
grimly  away  at  his  pipe. 

"  You  see  I'm  paying  you  the  com 
pliment  to  consider  you  out  of  the  run 
ning,"  resumed  Mr.  Banting.  "  It's 
plain  to  see  you've  got  a  soul  above 
such  trivialities.  Barker  told  me  what 
a  deuce  of  a  swell  you  are  in  lectures 
about  that — er — ology  of  yours,  you 
know.  But  for  us  everyday  Ameri 
cans,  who  believe  in  our  women,  and 
let  ourselves  be  badgered  and  bullied 
by  them  till  we  can't  rest,  this  matter  's 
getting  to  be  no  joke.  What  man 


THE  ANGLOMANTACS.  79 

wants  to  work  his  head  off  to  lay  up 
money,  and  then  see  a  fool  and  profli 
gate  walk  away  with  it  and  his  daugh 
ter  in  the  bargain,  so  that  his  grand 
children  may  have  handles  to  their 
names  and  learn  to  despise  America  ?  " 

"  Since  you  ask  me,"  remarked  Mr. 
Jencks,  "  I'm  free  to  say  I  have  heard 
of  several  who  have  not  only  sub 
mitted  to,  but  courted,  the  imposition." 

"Hum!"  answered  Tommy  Bant 
ing.  "There's  no  denying  a  stone 
wall  when  you  come  a  cropper  over  it. 
But  look  at  this,  will  you  ?"  He  took 
out  of  his  pocket-book  a  cutting  from 
the  advertising  column  of  a  German 
newspaper.  "  Here's  a  precious  bit  of 
California  enterprise,  and  I'm  told  it's 
started  in  New  York." 

Listlessly  the  other  took  the  slip  into 


8o  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

his  hand  and  read  what,  in  translation, 
follows  : 

Gentlemen  of  position,  noblemen,  cavaliers,  and 
officers  of  high  standing  (military  or  civil),  who  wish 
to  marry  very  rich  American  ladies,  may  put  them 
selves  in  communication  with  the  undersigned. 
Ladies  with  property  to  $20,000,000  are  on  our  list. 
The  greatest  secrecy  guaranteed.  Photographs  and 
detailed  reports  will  be  furnished.  Address  The 
International  Bureau  of  Private  Transactions,  San 
Francisco,  California,  America. 

"  What  do  you  think  of  that  ? " 
fumed  Banting. 

"Such  beastly  rot!"  Jencks  an 
swered.  "  It's  a  trap  for  the  needy, 
don't  you  see  ?  I'm  like  the  boy  whose 
compassion  was  aroused  for  the  little 
lion  in  the  corner  of  the  den  who  didn't 
seem  likely  to  get  his  share  of  martyr. 
My  sympathies  are  all  for  the  princes, 
counts,  and  barons  who  may  have  put 
their  advance  fees  into  letters  to  The 


THE  ./. \ '(//.(>.)/,/. V/./t'S.  8 1 

International  Bureau  of  Private  Tran 
sactions.  No  doubt  the  whole  thing's 
a  newspaper  canard." 

"  Plenty  of  people  will  believe  in  it. 
It  will  add  one  more  to  the  list  of 
stories  that  cheapen  American  girls  in 
European  eyes.  It'll  bring  a  bigger 
rush  than  ever  of  those  titled  sharks 
into  American  waters.  And  we'll  con 
tinue  to  throw  overboard  to  them  our 
daintiest  bait,  of  course.  That  delect 
able  business  shows  no  sign  of  dying 
out  among  us.  We  give  our  money, 
take  their  titles,  and  touch  our  caps  as 
your  railway  porters  do  when  you  tip 
'em  half-a-crown." 

"  Good  God,  man  ! ''  Jencks  said, 
bringing  his  fist  upon  the  table  in  a 
transport  of  impatience.  "  Whose  fault 
is  it,  if  in  a  country  like  yours,  capable 


THE  A  NGL  OMA  NIA  CS. 


of  any  attainment  of  moral  grandeur 
as  an  example  among  nations,  your 
men  and  women  should  bring  up  their 
children  by  no  higher  standard  than 
is  shown  by  your  own  admission  ? 
There's  some  excuse  for  the  petty 
worshipers  of  caste  with  us.  To  get  it 
out  of  them,  they'd  have  to  be  boiled 
down  and  skimmed  and  run  into  a  new 
mold.  But  you,  you  Americans,  who 
are  born  socially  to  the  freedom  of  the 
wild  horse  of  the  Pampas ;  who,  by 
the  force  of  your  own  individuality,  can 
set  the  mark  you  desire  to  leave  upon 
your  community  ;  who  are  not  bound 
and  swaddled  and  smothered  by  hered 
itary  awe  for  class  and  title — why 
aren't  you  satisfied  ?  It  seems  to  me, 
from  what  I  can  pick  up,  yours  in  New 
York  is  the  most  pretentious,  the  most 


THE  ANGLOMAMACS.  83 

artificial,  society  in  all  your  broad  land. 
By  George  !  I  wonder  what  that  old 
Malay,  Carlyle,  would  have  done  if  he'd 
been  turned  loose  to  run  amuck  through 
your  ranks — the  men  who  make,  by 
election,  fops  and  spendthrifts  of  their 
sons  ;  who  submit  their  daughters  and 
their  ducats  to  such  rascals  as  we've 
seen  carry  off  your  women  ;  the 
mothers  breaking  the  bonds  of  inher 
ited  Puritanism,  and  striving  to  be 
second-rate  imitations  of  the  fast  lot 
abroad  !  It  makes  my  blood  boil  to 
hear  such  ways  called  '  English  '  ;  I'd 
like  to  sound  a  trumpet  and  proclaim  a 
protest  in  the  name  of  a  thousand 
homes  of  England." 

"Great  Scott!"  remarked  Mr.  Ban 
ting,  to  whom  this  tirade  gave  wel 
come  entertainment.  "  Seems  to  me, 


84  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


though,  that  we  agree  about  the  main 
point.  But  I  say,  old  fellow,  New 
York  is  not  America,  and  there's  a 
queer  thing  you  have  to  be  behind  the 
curtain  to  find  out.  If  we  like  to  try 
on  your  aristocracy's  old  clothes,  it's 
no  sign  they  always  fit.  Some  of  the 
people,  I  know,  that  make  the  best 
showing  in  public  of  their  borrowed 
plumage,  relapse,  when  they're  alone, 
into  the  old  homespun  ways  of  loving 
each  other  and  their  kids,  giving  to 
charities,  and  so  on.  I  think  they  get 
a  little  tired  of  aping." 

"  So  does  the  clown  when  he  washes 
his  face  and  sits  down  to  beer  and 
cheese,"  Jencks  answered.  "  Ah, 
well !  you  Americans  are  nothing  if 
not  experimental.  You're  all  trying  to 
condense  a  century  of  progress  into 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  £5 

your  lifetime.  I  beg  your  pardon  if 
I've  been  a  nuisance,  and  I'll  say 
good-night." 

Not  exactly  exhilarated  by  this  inter 
view,  he  sought  rest  in  his  berth,  with 
but  indifferent  success.  The  increased 
pitching  of  the  ship  showed  they  were 
in  the  teeth  of  a  gale.  On  all  sides 
arose  lamentations  from  those  whose 
millions  could  not  purchase  them  a 
moment's  surcease  from  motion.  If 
Neptune,  who,  as  the  ancients  thought, 
has  power  by  striking  his  trident  on 
the  sea  to  make  an  island  rise  from  it, 
would  only  exert  himself  to  establish  a 
stopping-place  in  mid-Atlantic,  there 
would  be  fewer  new  arrivals  made  on 
either  continent. 

When  the  man  who  shared  Jencks's 
room  began  to  groan  aloud,  that  sym- 


86  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


pathetic  personage  determined,  after 
the  manner  of  his  sex,  to  leave  the 
sufferer  to  his  fate.  Standing  again  on 
deck,  he  drank  in  the  salt  with  a  ber 
serker's  delight.  He  felt  as  if  he  would 
have  liked  now  to  be  a  Viking  sailing 
his  own  craft,  holding  hard  the  tiller, 
and  chasing  the  witch-whale  through 
these  great  rolling  mountains  and 
under  this  blue-black  sky.  It  was  no 
longer  a  simple  west  wind  that  blew 
their  good  vessel  back,  but  a  furious 
blast,  coming  from  every  quarter  by 
turns.  Spray  drenched  the  decks,  and 
the  noise  of  wind  and  waves  was  deaf 
ening.  Through  all,  the  faithful  screw 
kept  up  its  weary  grinding,  and  the 
great  ship,  with  her  living  freight,  held 
her  unerring  course. 

During  the    twenty-four  hours  that 


THE  A.VGLOM.l.YLlCS.  8j 

followed  there  was  little  rest  for  any 
soul  on  board.  On  the  morning  of  the 
second  day  Jencks  saw  a  familiar  figure 
come  out  of  a  cabin-door  and  stand 
swaying  to  survey  the  waste  of  angry 
waters. 

"Don't  order  me  in,  please!"  she 
cried,  palpably  radiant  at  sight  of  him. 
"  It's  only  to  get  a  breath  of  air  into 
my  lungs." 

"  Take  my  arm,  then.  I'll  steady 
you,"  he  replied,  with  an  answering 
signal  of  delight. 

It  was  foolish,  it  was  imprudent — 
but  so  young  people  are  constructed. 
Lily  had  made  up  her  mind  to  put 
Jencks  out  of  it.  Jencks,  like  Lars 
Porsena  of  Clusium,  by  the  nine  gods 
he  swore,  not  to  let  this  American  girl 
make  a  fool  of  him.  The  relief  of  see- 


88  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

ing  a  big-,  strong,  well  person  of  the 
protecting  sex,  clad  in  a  storm-defying 
ulster  and  cap,  hold  out  his  arm  to  her, 
was  by  Lily  not  to  be  resisted.  With 
an  enchanting  smile,  she  laid  her  arm 
in  his.  The  wind  hustled  around  them, 
and  for  solitude  they  might  as  well 
have  been  on  the  Peak  of  Teneriffe. 
Speech  in  that  warfare  of  elements  was 
impossible.  She  was  so  near  that  the 
lovely  peach-bloom  of  her  cheek  almost 
grazed  the  unsympathetic  frieze  of  the 
collar  of  his  ulster.  And  there  the 
two  stood,  with  beating  hearts,  till  a 
wave  bigger  than  all  the  rest  came 
pounding  upon  the  deck  and  drenched 
them  both.  Added  to  this  injury,  a 
tarpaulined  being,  with  a  hoarse  and 
resentful  voice,  allowed  them  to  over 
hear  some  pointed  remarks  about  the 


THE  AXG1.0MANIACS.  89 

presence  of  ladies  on  deck  at  such  a 
time.  Jencks  laughed  rather  inanely 
as  he  tipped  the  tarpaulined  gentle 
man,  for  what  service  he  did  not 
clearly  know.  Lily  had  vanished, 
blushing  vividly. 

In  that  one  brief,  unexpected  mo 
ment  had  been  worked  the  old-new 
miracle.  Without  a  word  passing  be 
tween  them,  each  knew  what  the 
other's  heart  would  hide.  Whatever 
of  disappointment,  dolor,  listlessness  of 
middle  age,  survival  of  young  beliefs, 
time  might  hold  in  store,  they  had 
tasted  the  supreme  delight. 


III. 

IT  was  not  until  Mr.  Ernest  Jencks, 
late  passenger  on  the  steamship 
Etruria,  and  future  professor  of 
biology  in  Illyria  University,  Michi 
gan,  found  himself  and  his  luggage 
shut  up  in  a  dingy  cab  of  the  "night- 
hawk  "  pattern,  and  oscillating  vio 
lently  toward  the  Brevoort  House 
over  pavements  unutterably  bad,  that 
the  conviction  dawned  on  him  he  had 
been  tricked  by  fate.  Verily,  in  the 
words  of  his  prophet  Carlyle,  might 
have  been  said  to  him,  "  The  under 
standing  is  indeed  thy  window — too 
clear  thou  canst  not  make  it ;  but  fan 
tasy  is  thine  eye,  with  its  color-giving 
91 


92  THE  ANGLOMAXIACS. 

retina."  Imagination  had  him  in  her 
grip.  Since  the  pantomimic  but  ex 
pressive  interview  with  the  goddess  of 
his  dreams  on  shipboard  he  had  actu 
ally  not  had  speech  with  her  alone. 
With  returning  sunshine,  dry  decks, 
good  appetites,  and  hopes  of  land,  the 
ship's  passengers  had  suddenly  blos 
somed  out  into  a  host  of  chirping, 
joking  folk,  full  of  the  affairs  of  the 
world  that  did  not  interest  him  and 
that  subtly  divided  him  from  Lily. 

Among  the  first  to  emerge  from 
seclusion  was  Lily's  mother.  Trig, 
alert,  stylish,  conscious  of  a  becoming 
hat,  and  sustained  by  stays  that  took 
ten  years  from  her  age,  Mrs.  Floyd- 
Curtis  was  herself  again.  At  her  beck 
were  attendants  aggressively  correct 
and  solemn.  Surrounding  the  chairs 


77 IE  ANGLOMANIACS.  93 

of  mother  and  daughter  was  a  throng 
of  gossipers.  And  if  chance  offered 
him  a  loophole,  by  seeing  Lily  set  out 
for  a  walk,  she  was  at  once  followed 
and  entwined  by  Mrs.  Clay.  To  hang 
around  with  the  crowd  in  the  hope  of 
receiving  the  sixteenth  of  a  smile  or 
the  thirty-second  part  of  an  opinion  as 
to  Lili  Lehmann's  voice  did  not  allure 
him  irresistibly.  The  whole  complex 
ion  of  things  between  them  had  been 
altered  by  fine  weather.  He  was 
almost  tempted  to  find  his  divinity 
sometimes  pert,  as  he  thought  her 
mother  vulgar.  A  light  frost,  in  fact, 
had  fallen  upon  his  blooming  rose 
bush.  And  then  a  great  event  had 
taken  place,  reconciling  Mrs.  Floyd- 
Curtis  to  head  winds  and  expanding 
her  soul  in  pious  recognition  of  the 


94  THE  ANGLOMAN1ACS. 

blessings  sometimes  concealed  by 
frowns  of  Providence.  Lady  Mel- 
rose,  widow  of  the  late  earl  and 
mother  of  the  present  unmarried  owner 
of  the  title,  the  irate  dowager  on  her 
travels  whom  Miss  Lily  had  contrived 
to  affront  so  grievously  at  the  outset  of 
their  voyage,  had,  like  her  fellow-trav 
elers,  been  laid  low  by  seasickness. 
She  was  a  neighbor  of  Mrs.  Floyd-Cur 
tis  in  the  locality  of  her  stateroom,  and 
it  would  have  been  a  stony-hearted 
peeress  who  could  have  refused  the 
patient  daily  offerings  of  homage— 
pdtt  sandwiches,  fruit,  champagne,  and 
what  not — that  found  their  way  to  the 
reviving  sufferer.  And  thus,  by  a  proc 
ess  slow,  but  sure  as  the  growth  of 
pearls  within  the  shell,  America  ap 
peased  the  mother  country.  When  the 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  95 

dowager  appeared  on  deck,  giving  to 
view  high  aquiline  features,  a  suffused 
complexion,  and  the  expression  of  a 
bird  about  to  pounce,  her  thin  form 
encased  in  a  black  alpaca  dust-cloak, 
and  a  faded  blue  hood  trimmed  with 
seal  upon  her  head,  it  was  leaning  on 
the  arm  of  Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis's  own 
Jeames,  to  take  her  place  amid  the 
downiest  of  Mrs.  I^loyd-Curtis's  own 
cushions. 

How  Mrs.  Clay  admired  her  co- 
worker  in  diplomatic  paths  ;  how  Lily 
was  made  to  nibble,  with  rosy  lips  and 
contradicting  eyes,  at  a  bit  of  humble- 
pie  ;  how  Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis  sat  by 
serene,  and  kept  the  situation  well  in 
hand — are  victories  to  be  suno-  in 

o 

strains  heroic,  not  said   in  lowly  prose. 
Had  our  worthy  Jencks  been  a  little 


96  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

less  of  a  dreamer,  and  a  little  better 
versed  in  worldly  ways,  he  had  surely 
seen  that  this  circumstance  put  the 
finishing  touch  to  his  hopes  of  favor 
from  Lily's  mother.  Had  there  been 
nothing  else,  how  could  Mrs.  Floyd- 
Curtis  have  ventured  to  perform  the 
rites  of  introduction  between  an  Eng 
lishman  of  middle  class  and  an  Eng 
lishwoman  of  high  rank  on  a  ship  fly 
ing  British  colors?  This  is  a  question 
for  the  manuals  on  etiquette  to  decide. 
The  vastness  of  the  subject  inclines  me 
to  waive  trouble  by  letting  Mrs.  Floyd- 
Curtis  have  her  way. 

Thus  matters  had  continued  until 
the  Etriiria  touched  her  pier.  Then 
a  wild  throb  of  rebellion  against  part 
ing  with  his  love  without  another  word 
of  confidence  assailed  the  breast  of 


THE  A.YGf.O.V.l.Yi.lCS.  97 


Ernest  Jencks.  He  could  have  seized 
her  and  jumped  overboard  had  he 
dared  believe  she  returned  his  passion. 
But  of  opportunity  for  this  sort  of 
medieval  coup-de-main  none  offered. 
Lily  had  receded  as  America  drew 
near.  He  almost  fancied  she  had  in 
tention  in  her  avoidance  of  his  pres 
ence.  In  the  confusion  of  going 
ashore,  when  he  was  standing  alone 
and  savage,  debating  what  next  to  do, 
Jencks  felt  a  touch  like  velvet  on  his 
arm.  He  turned  around,  saw  Lily 
with  her  maid,  and  in  the  near  distance 
Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis,  beckoning. 

"  It  was  to  ask  if  I  may  keep  your 
'  Letters  to  Dead  Authors,'  "  Lily  said  ; 
"  I  can  send  it  to  you  by  mail." 

He  had  forgotten  the  book,  but  his 
heart  exhaled  in  blessing  Andrew 


98  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

Lang.  In  his  joy  at  recognizing  a 
bond  between  them,  however  slight, 
poor  Jencks  lost  his  head,  and  blurted 
out : 

"  Don't  send  it  back.  Or,  if  you 
must,  keep  it  till  you  want — till  you've 
need  of  me — you  might,  you  know — 
then  send  it,  and  I  will  come." 

"All  the  way  from  Illyria  ?  "  '  she 
said,  with  her  old  merry  smile  at  his 
extravagance  of  promise. 

"  From  the  world's  end,"  he  whis 
pered  hotly,  and  their  hands  met  ; 
then  Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis  bore  down 
upon  the  group  and  hustled  them 
apart. 

It  was  a  moment  of  some  anxiety  for 
Lily's  mother.  There  was  on  board  a 
new  prima  donna,  and  the  reporters 
had  come  down  in  full  force  to  be  told 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  99 

of  her  gladness  to  greet  America.  It 
was  also  known  that  the  heroine  of 
the  Prince's  breakfast  was  returning 
by  this  ship,  and  as  paragraphs  were 
bound  to  reach  next  morning's  news 
papers  it  was  naturally  desirable  that 
they  should  be  discreetly  framed. 
When,  therefore,  a  good-looking  young 
gentleman  doffed  his  hat  to  Mrs.  Floyd- 
Curtis,  and  offered  her  his  card  con 
taining  in  one  corner  certain  magic 
syllables  to  show  what  organ  of  public 
opinion  he  embodied,  the  clever  lady 
actually  turned  red.  But  soon  recov 
ering  herself,  she  withdrew  a  little 
from  the  crowd,  and  discoursed  to  her 
questioner  in  gracious  whispers. 

Mr.   Thomas  Banting,  who,  barring 
a   rather   cherubic    look,   could    in    no 


TOO  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

sense  be  said  to  suggest  a  messenger 
of  Cupid,  found  Jencks  at  his  hotel 
some  days  after  landing.  The  English 
man,  who  had  determined  to  spend  a 
fortnight  in  New  York  before  banish 
ment  to  Illyrian  wilds,  seemed  to  the 
genial  New  Yorker  to  be  in  an  imprac 
ticable  mood,  and,  reversing  Brown 
ing's  words,  was  "all  prickles,  no 
petals."  He  let  himself  be  carried  off, 
however ;  was  put  up  at  a  couple  of 
clubs,  and  dined  at  Delmonico's,  where 
they  saw  a  curious  gathering  of  sun 
burned,  hilarious  people  in  half-travel 
ing  costume,  declared  by  Mr.  Banting 
to  be  the  elect  of  society  returned  from 
mountain,  moor,  and  sea,  and  in  the 
act  of  opening  their  town  houses  for 
the  season.  Jencks  looked  in  vain  for 
the  fragility  he  had  been  led  to  believe 


THE  ANGLOMANiACS.  101 

in  as  typical  of  American  women. 
The  men,  too,  were  brown  and  hearty, 
and  much  of  the  talk  was  about  sport, 
horses,  dogs,  and  yachting,  although, 
where  the  ladies  had  no  part  in  conver 
sation,  Wall  Street  and  the  familiar 
names  in  finance  were  often  heard. 
The  evening  wound  up  pleasantly  at  a 
neighboring  theater,  where  they  en 
joyed  as  much  as  was  possible  of  a 
charming  actress  over  the  monstrous 
bonnets  of  the  women  occupying  seats 
in  the  parquette.  Coming  out  of  the 
play-house,  the  two  men  stood  for  a 
moment  to  light  their  cigars  beneath 
the  electric  light  of  the  entrance. 
Jencks  wondered  at  the  incongruity  of 
an  audience  so  richly  attired  struggling 
for  places  in  a  Broadway  car.  Pell- 
mell  they  rushed  for  the  seats,  and 


102  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

when  these  were  filled  surged  into  the 
narrow  aisle,  packed  in  a  swaying  mass. 
Women,  with  costly  furs,  diamonds, 
and  hothouse  violets,  clinging  to  the 
straps,  were  nudged  and  jostled  by  any 
unsavory  stranger  who  had  paid  his 
five  cents  for  a  "  ride."  And  still  the 
insatiable  car  stood  still  and  submit 
ted  to  new  incursions.  More  ladies, 
laughing  and  breathless,  got  in,  or 
rather  on  to  the  platform  at  the  rear. 
These  the  conductor  of  the  car,  a 
smiling  Irishman  in  a  greasy  uniform 
and  with  extremely  dirty  hands,  patted 
upon  the  back,  adjuring  them  to  "  Step 
up  lively,  now."  When  at  last  neither 
inside  nor  out  could  by  any  pre 
tense  be  made  to  receive  another 
martyr,  the  bell  rang,  the  straining 
horses  started,  and  a  new  car  came 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  103 

into  place,  to  see  the  experiment  re 
peated. 

"  By  the  way,  this  is  Friday,"  said 
Banting,  as  they  exchanged  good- 
nights.  "  Why  not  run  out  with  me 
to-morrow  to  Tupelo,  and  stop  over 
till  Monday?  It's  a  place  you  ought 
to  see.  And  I  shouldn't  wonder  if 
you  find  some  one  there  you  know. 
I  know  the  Floyd-Curtises  are  there. 
They've  been  buying  land,  I'm  told." 

Jencks  hesitated,  and  was  lost. 

Next  day  Banting  found  him  walk 
ing  up  and  down  in  the  ferry-house  at 
the  foot  of  West  Twenty-third  Street, 
and  thought  the  air  of  New  York  must 
agree  with  the  new-comer,  so  bright, 
so  eager,  was  the  young  man's  face,  so 
quick  his  step.  Presently  a  huge 
double-ended  boat  came  into  the  slip, 


THE  ANGLOMANIA  CS. 


gates  were  opened,  and  a  crowd  of 
people  emerged,  rushing  as  if  to  see  a 
fire,  carrying  with  it  women,  babies,  and 
other  impedimenta,  to  be  succeeded  by 
a  returning  wave  of  similar  humanity, 
who,  filling  the  cabins,  settled  placidly 
into  the  seats.  When  the  everyday 
people  were  established  it  was  the  turn 
of  a  few  whose  luggage  was  marked 
"  Tupelo  Park  "  to  go  on  board.  Some 
sat  in  their  cabs  or  broughams,  with 
glasses  down,  and  with  long-coated 
footmen  waiting  close  at  hand. 
Others  went  out  on  the  forward  deck, 
and  stood  huddled  in  little  isolated 
groups.  Almost  all  refused  to  see 
their  fellow-passengers.  They  were 
really  delightfully  exclusive.  And 
their  accent  was  for  the  most  part  so 
strongly  English,  their  phraseology  so 


THE  ANGLO.MAXIACS. 


much  what  Jencks  had  left  behind,  that 
but  for  an  occasional  relapse  into  the 
American  vernacular,  a  word  promptly 
repronounced  in  English,  you  might 
have  believed  them  to  be  one  of 
Thackeray's  bands  of  British  aristo 
crats  compelled  to  cross  the  Channel 
in  company  with  tourists  of  their  own 
nation,  but  of  baser  clay. 

The  glorious  wide  river  swelled  into 
a  mimic  sea.  The  far  shore  was  dyed 
with  autumn  tints.  A  wind  blew  out 
of  the  west  so  fresh  and  free  as  to 
make  the  blood  tingle  with  delight.  In 
this  sparkling  atmosphere  the  Hudson 
was  instinct  with  life.  As  the  cum 
brous  boat  plowed  heavily  in  the  direc 
tion  of  New  Jersey  she  was  apparently 
compelled  to  thread  her  way  among 
schooners,  sloops,  lumber-barges,  tugs, 


Io6  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

and  rowboats  that  impeded  her  course. 
Other  huge  ferry-boats  crossed  and 
recrossed  the  stream.  An  ocean 
steamer  came  in,  another  sailed,  the 
decks  thronged  with  passengers.  It 
seemed  like  a  game  of  hit-or-miss,  as 
the  various  craft  glided  before  and 
behind  theirs,  amid  the  clang  of  bells 
and  raucous  cries  of  steam  whistles. 
For  miles  along1  each  shore  the  hori- 

o 

zon  line  was  etched  with  the  masts 
of  ships. 

Most  striking  to  the  eye  familiar 
with  the  atmospheric  density  of  a 
London  firmament  was  the  stainless 
blue  of  the  sky  serving  as  umbrella  to 
New  York,  whose  purity  the  smoke  of 
thousands  of  chimneys  did  not  succeed 
in  smirching.  In  the  slanting  rays  of 
an  afternoon  sun,  housetops,  spires, 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  107 

towering  buildings,  and  meaner  sub 
urbs  were  seen  under  a  beautifying  veil 
of  golden  tissue. 

In  the  drawing-room  car,  where  the 
Tupelo  party  were  presently  assem 
bled,  Jencks  found  himself,  willy-nilly, 
gathered  up  by  Banting  and  presented 
to  some  of  the  passengers  who  had  by 
that  time  relaxed  into  a  relieved  inter 
communication  of  which  the  perspec 
tive  showed  no  bar.  By  all  of  them 
he  had  the  satisfaction  to  be  received 
civilly,  by  some  with  cordiality.  A 
new  Englishman  has  the  odds  all  in  his 
favor.  Banting,  a  good-natured  mor 
tal,  and  sketchy  in  his  style,  had  told 
his  friends  that  Professor  Jencks  was 
the  most  famous  scientist  of  Oxbridge, 
and  that  Barker  said  he  might  probably 
be  intending  to  write  a  book  about  the 


lo8  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

States.  Barker  had  said  nothing  of 
the  kind.  It  was  a  passenger  on  the 
Etruria  who  hazarded  this  observa 
tion,  and  Banting  interwove  it  with  his 
own  ideas  of  the  reality.  The  conse 
quence  was  that  Jencks's  reputation, 
immediately  after  he  set  foot  on  Ameri 
can  soil,  began  to  grow  at  the  rate  of 
Chicago  or  Seattle. 

In  the  talk  of  the  circle  of  which 
Mr.  Jencks  was  now  privileged  to  be 
a  member  he  thought  he  had  never 
heard  a  more  nimble  interchange  of 
merry  nothings.  The  manner  of  it  was 
rather  French  than  English,  though 
the  low  voices  and  distinct  enunciation, 
here  more  the  rule  than  the  exception, 
suggested  a  lesson  acquired  in  England 
and  practiced  with  painstaking.  Fol 
lowing  his  experience  with  some  other 


THE  ANGLOS AXI ACS.  109 

Americans  in  public  vehicles,  the  pres 
ent  one  "like  a  poultice  came,  to  heal 
the  blows  of  sound." 

It  was  evident  that  the  men  were 
mostly  content  to  let  their  womankind 
serve  as  their  representatives  in  active 
speech.  Some  of  them,  coming  directly 
from  down-town  offices  to  join  their 
families  at  the  ferry,  opened  the  large 
sheets  of  evening  newspapers  and  were 
lost  behind  them  at  the  starting  of  the 
train.  Now  and  again  such  a  student 
of  current  history  might  be  observed  to 
grind  his  teeth  and  crumple  his  journal, 
or  to  get  up  and  retire  precipitately 
into  the  smokers'  car.  He  was  apt  to 
be  a  distinguished  citizen  whose  name 
was  familiar  to  the  public,  unable  yet 
to  derive  entertainment  from  some  hor 
ribly  personal  and  abusive  paragraph 


Ho  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

concerning  his  private  character,  or  a 
brief  biography  of  his  wife  or  daugh 
ter  accompanied  with  ghastly  process 
blocks  of  these  ladies  in  costume  de  bal. 

To  Jencks's  particular  lot  fell  a  volu 
ble  couple,  mother  and  daughter,  going 
up  for  what  apparently  was  an  oft- 
repeated  holiday  at  Tupelo,  and  pre 
pared  to  enlighten  him  on  all  points 
connected  with  the  gossip  of  the 
place. 

Under  circumstances  like  these  he 
naturally  heard  the  name  of  his  fair 
one  early  brought  up  for  comment. 
The  young  lady,  a  "  bud  "  of  the  pre 
ceding  year,  beset  him  to  know  what 
he  thought  of  the  eyes,  nose,  mouth, 
taste  in  dress,  intelligence,  and  temper 
of  Miss  Floyd-Curtis.  The  poor  girl 
was,  in  fact,  thoroughly  raked  over  the 


THE  ANGLO VANI ACS.  Ill 

coals  of  criticism.  His  interlocutor, 
who,  he  justly  thought,  was  pretty 
enough  on  her  own  account  to  have 
left  room  in  the  world  for  Lily,  did  not 
rest  till  she  had  despoiled  the  newer 
beauty  of  every  claim  to  admiration. 
And  then  he  observed  her  bestow  a 
covert  but  satisfying  glance  at  a  certain 
strip  of  mirror  let  into  the  opposite 
wall  of  the  Pullman. 

Mr.  Jencks  learned  also  that  not 
only  were  the  Floyd-Curtises  installed 
at  the  club  house  as  recent  purchasers 
of  land  and  prospective  house-owners, 
entitled  now  to  the  privileges  of  mem 
bership,  but  that  they  had  with  them 
as  their  guests  Mrs.  Bertie  Clay  and 
the  Countess  of  Melrose.  These 
ladies  were  to  be  crown  and  summit 
of  the  evening's  expected  meeting  of 


H2  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

club  people  and  cottagers  in  the  ball 
room  of  the  club  house. 

Less  than  an  hour  and  a  half  of 
journeying  over  emerald  lowlands  into 
a  beautiful  hill  country,  all  garlanded 
with  autumn  leaves,  brought  the  party 
to  their  destined  stopping-place.  Be 
hind  the  station  were  drawn  up  an 
array  of  dog-carts,  village  carts,  wago 
nettes,  and  other  shining  vehicles,  with 
grooms,  horses,  and  harness  in  cor- 
rectest  style.  To  these  severally 
resorted  the  people  who  owned  them 
as  well  as  the  luxurious  cottages  scat 
tered  about  the  Park.  Jencks,  with 
his  friend  and  others  bound  directly 
to  the  club,  took  possession  knee  to 
knee  of  a  trig  omnibus,  and  were 
before  long  passing  under  a  stone 
archway  marking  the  confines  of  the 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  113 

Park.  Here,  between  the  rows  of 
chattering  people,  Jencks  again  en 
joyed  hearing  the  name  of  Miss  Floyd- 
Curtis  tossed  like  a  shuttlecock.  He 
was  inclined  to  think  that  the  impor 
tance  to  the  social  community  of  a  new 
belle  was  second  only  to  that  of  a 
presidential  candidate  to  the  commu 
nity  at  large  ;  and,  this  being  the  year 
of  a  presidential  election,  he  had  al 
ready  found  opportunity  for  observa 
tion  on  that  subject.  That  conjecture 
had  begun  to  reckon  up  the  available 
and  impecunious  members  of  the  Brit 
ish  peerage  for  Lily's  benefit,  he  was 
made  almost  painfully  aware. 

It  was  otherwise  a  pleasant  drive 
enough,  through  a  wilderness  that  had 
been  made  to  blossom  into  something 
akin  to  the  perfection  of  English  land- 


H4  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

scape  gardening.  The  winding  roads 
were  paved  and  drained  and  provided 
with  lamps  for  gas,  but  overhead  grew 
trees  of  the  deep  woods,  and  at  every 
turn  some  boulder  bedded  in  moss 
and  greenery,  some  bank  of  yellowing 
bracken,  some  glimpse  of  lake  and 
distant  hilltop,  showed  that  nature 
had  not  been  despoiled  of  her  fondest 
coquetries.  In  the  dewy  depths  of 
leafage  glorious  in  rainbow  color  there 
were  still  notes  of  song-birds  tarrying 
upon  their  southward  way,  while  squir 
rels  stored  their  nuts  in  full  si<jht  of 

o 

the  passer-by.  Viewed  in  that  atmos 
pheric  brilliancy  of  tone  peculiar  to 
our  hill  country  at  this  season  of  the 
year,  a  little  effort  of  the  imagination 
and  one  might  revive  the  primeval 
stretches  of  woodlands  in  which  the 


7/7/s    AXGI.OMAXIACS. 


genius  of  Cooper   framed  some  of  his 
"  Leather-stocking  Tales." 

The  "  bus,"  skirting  the  lake,  drew 
up  finally  before  a  long,  picturesque, 
brown  house,  with  wings  and  attendant 
cottages  clustered  beneath  a  grove  of 
glorious  oak  trees.  Lackeys  in  wait 
ing  helped  travelers  to  alight,  and 
ushered  them  into  a  deep  hall,  filled 
with  the  furnishings  of  home-like  com 
fort,  and  softly  luminous  with  lamps 
and  a  fire  of  logs,  kindled  in  a  chim 
ney-place  of  cavernous  proportions. 
Scattered  over  the  great  table  facing 
the  fire  were  journals  and  magazines  of 
England  and  America,  those  illusive 
piles  that  light  the  unaccustomed  eye 
with  rapture,  and  to  the  habitual 
reader  of  many  periodicals  convey 
satiety  with  the  mere  glancing  at  the 


Ii6  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

covers.      Surrounding  this  table,  seated 

*-j 

in  easy-chairs  or  standing,  were  groups 
of  men  and  women,  most  of  them 
attired  as  if  just  come  in  from  walk, 
or  drive,  or  ride,  or  sail.  It  was  the 
pleasant  hour  when  cups  clink  and 
kettles  puff  their  steam,  when  whitest 
ringers  twinkle  over  sugar-tongs,  dally 
with  cream-jugs,  and  make  votive  offer 
ings  of  too  often  atrocious  draughts  of 
tea.  In  an  adjoining  drawing-room  a 
table  was  spread  offering  full  material 
for  the  exercise  of  this  fashionable 
pastime.  Elsewhere  was  heard  the 
soft  click  of  billiard  balls,  and  to  the 
men  who  so  desired  it  there  was  more 
than  one  open  door  of  escape  from  the 
society  of  their  best  and  dearest.  But 
for  the  registry  desk,  hidden  from 
sight  by  the  abutment  of  the  chimney, 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  117 

where  stood  an  official  prepared  to 
testify  on  all  points  connected  with 
trains,  telegrams,  conveyances,  drives, 
keys,  location  of  rooms,  probabilities  of 
weather,  and  the  correct  time  of  day,  it 
was  like  the  country  house  of  some 
self-effacing  host. 

Jencks  was  a  little  bewildered  by  the 
brilliant  gayety  of  the  guests,  the  al 
ready  established  among  them  greet 
ing  the  newcomers  with  effusive  wel 
come.  He  would  have  missed  the 
reserve,  the  low-toned  talk,  of  a  similar 
gathering  in  England  had  he  been  an 
adept  in  the  country  houses  of  his 
own  native  land.  But  it  was  charming 
enough  to  dispense  with  criticism  as  he 
stood  by  the  hall  fire  looking  curiously 
on  at  the  kaleidoscopic  picture.  In 
none  of  the  passing  figures  did  he  dis- 


Ii8  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

cern  the  one  now  become  of  absorbing 
interest  to  his  thoughts.  As  the 
people  were  thinning  out  to  go  to  their 
rooms  the  hall  door  opened,  and,  in  a 
waft  of  cooling  air,  fragrant  with  odors 
of  the  autumn  wood,  came  to  him  the 
apparition  of  Lily  Curtis.  She  was 
one  of  a  driving  party  just  arrived,  and 
on  entering  the  warm  hall  she  hast 
ened  to  loosen  and  throw  aside  the 
Connemara  cloak  of  glowing  crimson, 
with  some  sort  of  high  collar  of  brown 
fur  and  intricate  clasps  of  beaten  silver, 
that  he  remembered  seeing  on  ship 
board.  That  the  young  man  nearest 
her  received  this  cloak  upon  his  arm  as 
if  it  had  been  royalty's,  Jencks  noted 
with  jealous  eyes.  Then  a  species  of 
giddiness  came  into  his  calm  brain,  for 
Lily,  looking  over  at  the  fire,  saw  him 


THE  ANGLOMANtACS.  1 19 

in  turn.  She  was  clad  all  in  white 
woolen  stuff  made  sailor-wise,  and  she 
wore  upon  her  ruddy  locks  a  little 
sailor  hat.  Everything  recalled  to  him 
their  voyage  and  his  enchantment. 
A  moment  and  she  had  crossed  the 
hall  and  was  holding  out  her  hand  to 
him,  a  joy  there  was  no  mistaking  in 
her  eyes. 

"  Why,  Mr.  Jencks  !  "  she  exclaimed. 

"  Oh,  how  d'ye  do — I'm  here  with 
Banting," 

It  is  only  in  books  that  people  taken 
by  surprise  adjure  each  other  in  pol 
ished  phraseology. 

While  dressing  for  dinner  a  sense  of 
the  grotesqueness  of  his  present  atti 
tude  disturbed  the  young  professor. 
He  was  obviously  a  fish  out  of  water. 
He  felt  tempted  to  pack  his  portman- 


120  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


teau  and  go  back  to  town  by  the  night 
train.  He  tried  to  persuade  himself 
that  the  only  reason  for  not  doing  so 
was  that  it  would  seem  so  very  rude  to 
Banting. 

Banting  and  he  had  a  little  table  for 

o 

two  in  the  great  glass-covered  veranda 
overlooking  the  lake,  where  everybody 
likes  to  dine.  Banting  had  cunningly 
selected  their  location  in  order  to  give 
his  friend  a  full  view  of  the  pretty 
scene. 

There  were  many  tables,  some  large, 
some  small,  the  diners  numbering 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  when  re 
inforced  by  parties  from  the  cottages, 
who  came  in  for  the  dance  that  was  to 
follow.  In  their  immediate  vicinity  a 
table  with  many  roses  and  silver  can 
delabra  was  prepared  for  an  especial 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  121 


party  not  yet  arrived.  Presently 
Jencks  had  the  pleasing  pain  of  seeing 
six  couples  come  down  the  room, 
among  them  his  sweetheart  and  the 
man  who  had  held  her  cloak,  and  take 
their  places  at  this  table  next  to  him. 
Without  doing  more  than  to  glance 
over  the  rim  of  his  glass  of  Burgundy, 
he  could  see  the  back  of  Lily's  beauti 
ful  young  shoulders,  and  her  knot  of 
burnished  hair  twisted  high  and  stuck 
through  with  an  amber  dart — the  little 
rings  escaping  from  the  knot  curling 
upon  the  bare  white  column  of  her 
neck.  As  she  had  passed  them,  with  a 
nod  and  a  smile,  the  poor  professor 
had  been  struck  dumb  by  her  dazzling 
appearance.  It  was  not  finery,  surely, 
for  her  attire  was  of  simplest  white, 
girdled  with  white,  and  she  wore  no 


122  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

ornaments.  But  he  had  never  seen 
her  before  in  evening  dress,  and  he 
did  not  wonder  that  all  heads  turned  to 
look  at  her,  and,  as  to  the  Helen  of 
the  classics,  "  did  her  reverence  as  she 
passed." 

"  Amber — what  is  amber  ?  "  he  was 
musing.  "Tears  of  the  Heliades,  I 
think,  when  they  wept  over  Phaeton's 
fall.  They  were  changed  into  poplars, 
and  their  boughs  dropped  the  precious 
gum.  She  is  straight  and  tall,  like  a 
poplar,  but  her  eyes  have  never  wept." 

Now  this  is  what  he  said.  To  the 
waiter :  "  I  will  have  another  cutlet." 
To  Banting :  "  It's  awfully  good  of 
you,  certainly,  to  give  me  an  oppor 
tunity  to  see  this.  I'm  not  likely  to 
see  anything  better  of  its  kind.  These 
people,  I  take  it,  represent  your  most 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  123 


distinguished  citizens.  But  tell  me,  if 
you  don't  mind  :  this  upper  stratum  of 
republican  society  in  your  States  in 
general— for  what  are  its  members  dis 
tinguished  ?  Has  any  one  of  them 
discovered  or  invented  anything,  or 
written  a  book  that  led  thought  in  his 
time,  or  a  successful  play  ?  Is  there 
among  them  a  great  statesman,  or 
surgeon,  or  scientist,  or  one  of  your 
brilliant  editors  or  lawyers,  whose 
names  we  know  so  well  in  England?" 

"Hum!"  said  Banting;  "you  see 
those  at  dinners  sometimes.  But,  as  a 
general  rule,  they're  too  busy.  They're 
bored  by  it,  in  fact.  They  send  their 
women-folk." 

"And  your  politicians?" 

"  They  show  up  in  Washington," 
Banting  exclaimed,  rather  nervously. 


124  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

"  Fact  is,  you  should  go  to  Washing 
ton.  It's  unique.  I  run  down  there 
myself  every  season,  for  a  week  or  so." 

"  But  the  politicians  who  are  living 
in  New  York  ? " 

"  They  can't  serve  two  masters," 
Tommy  said  serenely.  "Just  let  a 
man's  name  be  published  as  at  a  swell 
ball  or  dinner,  and  his  constituents  of 
Avenue  A  pitch  into  him  for  a  '  dude,' 
and  away  goes  his  '  inflooence  '  in  his 
'  derestrict,'  and  the  newspapers  never 
let  up  on  him.  Two  or  three  fellows 
of  our  set  have  gone  in  for  politics  in 
New  York,  but  they  were  young,  you 
know.  They'll  have  time  to  live  it 
down." 

"  Then  if  this  is  society,  such  men 
as  I  ask  about  are  not  society  ?" 

"Absurd!"  said  Banting.      "Plenty 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


of  'em  send  their  families.  You  can 
understand  that  to  run  a  big  machine 
like  ours  takes  time." 

"  Then  the  ones  who  do  have  time 
to  associate  with  the  wives  and  daugh 
ters  of  the  ones  who  don't?"  persisted 
Jencks. 

"  Oh,  they  have  mostly  inherited 
great  fortunes  ;  in  some  cases  have 
made  their  own  and  stopped,"  said 
Tommy  easily.  "  They  represent  our 
leisure  class,  our  equivalent  for  your 
aristocracy." 

"  Is  it  true,  what  a  newspaper  man 
told  me,  that  there  are  gentlemen  of 
inherited  wealth  among  you  who  are 
actually  and  designedly  segregating 
into  a  clique  that  shall  exclude  the 
present  maker  of  money,  the  profes 
sional  man  taking  fees  for  service 


126  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

rendered  to  his  client  or  his  pa 
tient?" 

"  I  give  you  my  word  I  never  heard 
anybody  say  so,"  said  Tommy  modestly. 
Being  the  son  and  heir  of  a  late  emi 
nent  haberdasher,  Mr.  Banting  was 
rather  flattered  by  this  suggestion. 
"  Hang  it,  Jencks,  what  do  you  expect 
of  us?" 

"  I  expected  to  find  New  York  the 
flower  of  the  materialism  by  which  the 
world  is  leavened  ;  and  I've  found  it," 
remarked  Jencks,  putting  sugar  in  his 
coffee. 

"If  we're  material,  what's  London  ? 
What's  Paris  ?  Why,  fellows  over 
there  will  do  anything  for  money.  As 
I  was  going  on  to  say,  I  believe  you 
Britishers  are  half  disappointed  not 
to  find  us  sitting  around  wigwam  fires, 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  12  J 


and  to  have  our  squaws  wait  on  you, 
and  be  asked  to  go  to  the  chase  in 
Iroquois  costume." 

"  I  am  disappointed  to  find  so  few 
who  seem  to  value  their  country  for 
anything  it  has  achieved  beyond  heap 
ing  up  colossal  fortunes  and  laying  so 
many  miles  of  railroad.  Those  who 
treasure  its  traditions  are  about  as 
isolated  from  the  control  of  thought 
as  one  of  the  Aztec  images  up  yonder 
in  your  Metropolitan  Museum,  where 
I  spent  the  morning  in  company  with 
perhaps  a  dozen  other  searchers  after 
art  last  week." 

"We'll  catch  up  with  history  and  the 
arts  by  and  by,"  remarked  Mr.  Banting, 
with  imperturbable  good  nature.  "And 
if  you'll  stay  over  in  New  York  till 
election  time  I  rather  think  you'll  find 


128  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

a  reason  why  the  high  patriotic  busi 
ness  is  about  played  out.  Just  go 
down  to  Castle  Garden  and  study  the 
kind  of  citizens  we're  acquiring  every 
day  to  help  to  form  our  thought. 
Drop  in  at  one  of  our  courts  and  see 
our  manufactory  of  voters  at  work. 
The  other  day  I  happened  to  be  there 
when  the  judge  was  examining  a  scaly 
lot  of  organ-grinders  and  Russians, 
previous  to  naturalizing  them.  The 
first  fellow  he  had  up  was  an  Italian, 
all  garlic  and  ear-rings,  and  the  first 
question  asked  was,  '  What  sort  of  a 
government  is  this?'  '  Georga  Washa, 
Georga  Washa,'  the  fellow  answered, 
like  a  parrot.  But  the  judge  pressed 
the  question,  and  on  being  prompted 
in  the  rear  the  man  rallied  up  with, 
' Si,  si,  Republicana!  'Who  make  the 


THE  A.\'(;r.o.ir,i\/.ics.  129 

laws  ? '  was  the  next  question,  and 
again  the  answer  was  '  Georga  Washa.' 
But  after  repeated  coaching,  Signer 
Garibaldi  informed  the  court  that  '  de 
peep '  make  the  laws,  and  was  then 
admitted  to  be  one  of  us — an  American 
citizen.  Another  aspirant  was  a  dirty, 
hairy  Nihilist  with  a  name  like  a  sneeze. 
He  couldn't  speak  a  word  of  English, 
and  the  questions  were  repeated  to 
him  through  a  Russian  interpreter. 
His  only  answers  were  a  series  of 
shrugs,  and  his  face  was  as  vacant  as 
an  owl's  ;  but  he,  too,  became  entitled 
to  the  privilege  I  share  with  him. 
The  law's  exaction  is  that  the  would-be 
citizen  shall  be  'of  good  moral  char 
acter  and  attached  to  the  principles  of 
the  Constitution';  hence  the  style  of 
interrogatory." 


130  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


"  That's  a  nice  showing  for  your 
judiciary,"  Jencks  said.  "  It's  as  bad 
as  stealing  votes." 

"  We  must  make  allowance  for  a  fel 
low-feeling  in  some  cases,  I  suppose. 
When  the  judge  happens  to  be  foreign 
born  himself,  or  the  immediate  de 
scendant  of  a  naturalized  immigrant, 
his  inclination  to  be  indulgent  with  the 
new  applicant  for  citizenship  is  some 
times  irresistible,  don't  you  know?  At 
any  rate,  that's  what  we  have  to  put 
up  with,  and  it's  stinging  hard  to 
bear." 

"You  are  always 'putting  up  with  ' 
things.  You're  the  most  submissive 
race  on  earth  to  public  outrages.  And 
from  a  cursory  view  of  the  situation 
I'm  inclined  to  the  opinion  that  the 
least  attractive  features  of  your  great 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


city,  externally,  are  office-holders  and 
ash-barrels,"  said  Jencks,  good-humor- 
edly. 

"  Which  is  the  raison  d'etre  of  New 
port  and  Tupelo.  Well,  all  said,  and 
in  spite  of  some  weak  points,  I  find 
our  community  a  pretty  good  one  to 
live  in.  You  gibe  at  our  extravagance, 
but  what  does  money  mean  but  the 
good  things  of  life?  If  our  million 
aires  have,  so  far,  chosen  to  put  their 
art  into  the  best  ways  of  getting 
comfortably  around  the  world,  who's 
profited  by  it,  I'd  like  to  know  ?  Pic 
tures  and  statues  will  come  along. 
You  don't  find  our  charities  behind 
hand.  They  are  among  the  most 
splendid  in  the  world.  In  the  last  few 
years  our  grand  new  houses  have  been 
filled  with  treasures  you  were  glad  we 


132  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

had  dollars  enough  to  pay  for.  Who'd 
buy  all  these  crown  jewels  of  defunct 
monarchies,  tapestries  and  carvings 
from  impoverished  castles,  bric-a-brac 
and  books  Europe  can't  afford  to  keep, 
if  we  did  not?  Even  the  East  prof 
its  :  Japan  has  to  manufacture  new 
curios,  because  her  priceless  old  ones 
are  in  American  collections.  Wait  till 
I  can  show  you  the  houses  of  a  few  of 
our  New  York  millionaires,  and  you'll 
see  whether  the  Jeffersonian  simplicity 
business  is  not  played  out  to  some 
good  purpose." 

"Don't  show  me  anything  more," 
Jencks  said,  laughing.-  "I  am  rapidly 
growing  into  the  state  of  mind  of  that 
young  fellow  I  heard  of  last  week  who 
failed  as  a  society  reporter,  and  went 
and  hired  a  suit  of  evening  clothes  in 


THE  ANGLOMAA'IACS.  133 

which  to  drown  himself  like  a  gentle 
man  in  the  reservoir  of  Central  Park. 
I  believe  it  all  to  be  enormously  im 
portant." 

"  She  has  just  the  untrammeled  walk 
that  a  young  squaw  might  have,"  his 
thoughts  took  shape  again.  "  If  she 
were  grinding  corn  in  a  hollowed  rock 
she  would  be  just  as  graceful.  Oh,  if 
she  had  not  a  penny,  and  I  a  ranch  in 
the  far  West,  what  a  glorious  comrade 
for  the  wilds  !  Even  this  cobweb  tin 
sel  spun  around  her  has  not  harmed 
her  yet.  But  it  will — alas !  it  will. 
And  she  is  no  more  for  me  than  I  am 
fit  for  an  atmosphere  like  hers.  It  is 
the  wildest  caprice  of  destiny  that  has 
made  me  love  her.  Well,  I  will  regale 
my  eyes  this  little  while,  and  then- 
Walter  Bagehot  said  he  would  enjoy 


134  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

society  if  the  little  pink  and  blue  girls 
were  not  so  like  each  other.  That's 
how  I've  always  looked  at  it.  She's 
not  monotonous.  She  is  continually 
changing,  the  embodiment  of  joyous 
youth  at  one  moment,  cynic  the  next. 
But  the  cynicism  is  only  skin  deep,  and 
the  freshness  is  perennial — " 

"  If  you've  finished  your  coffee,  shall 
we  go  and  smoke  ?  "  said  Banting. 


IV. 

THE  ball-room  at  the  Tupelo  club 
house  is  an  octagonal  apartment,  with 
tints  of  opal  iridescence  in  its  dome 
and  walls,  and  draperies  of  gray-blue 
plush.  Around  it  runs  a  dais,  with 
seats  for  dowagers  and  talkers.  At 
one  end  is  a  stage  for  concerts  and 
theatricals.  On  this  were  already 
grouped  the  picturesque  Hungarians, 
tearing  away  wildly  at  their  magic 
fiddle-bows,  and  filling  the  languid  air 
with  irresistible  vitality.  On  the  wide 
parquet,  polished  like  an  eggshell, 
groups  of  girls  were  strolling  or  waltz 
ing  together,  with  an  occasional  glance 
in  the  direction  of  the  entrance-door, 
'35 


1 36  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

beyond  which,  in  billiard  and  smoking 
rooms,  the  men  hid  themselves,  con 
scious  of  value  as  blessings  to  be 
not  unduly  lavished  until  sufficiently 
desired. 

Even  Lily,  at  ordinary  times  indif 
ferent,  kept  a  sort  of  covert  watch 
upon  the  door. 

Lady  Melrose,  accustomed  to  her 
forty  winks  after  dinner  before  the 
men  came  in,  had  established  herself 
with  a  supporter  on  each  side.  She 
resented  the  approach  of  ladies  who 
would  have  chosen  this  hour  for  civili 
ties.  In  her  opinion  there  wras  too 
much  discussion  of  everything  among 
women  in  America.  Upon  the  various 
questions  of  the  hour,  down  to  the 
smallest  arrangement  for  social  enter 
tainment,  was  expended  such  a  pro- 


THE  ANGLOMAXIACS.  137 

dioious    amount    of    animation.       Nor 

o 

did  she  meet  with  the  enthronement  as 
an  oracle  she  had  been  led  to  expect. 
These  easy,  clear-headed,  clever  women 
were  a  surprise  to  her.  One  incon 
sistency  alone  was  patent.  She  saw 
that  they  were  cultured,  beautiful,  and 
well-dressed  without  extravagance.  It 
soon  transpired  that  most  of  those  with 
whom  she  talked  had  journeyed  into 
every  civilized  part  of  Europe  and  the 
East — that  in  no  sense  could  they  be 
called  provincial.  It  struck  her  as  a 
curious  weakness  that  the  achievement 
they  apparently  valued  most  was  the 
three  days'  visit  last  year  to  Lady 
Such-a-one's  shooting-box  in  Scotland, 
or  the  dinners  and  balls  they  had  had 
cards  for,  the  year  before  in  London. 
Every  hereditary  title  of  their  acquain- 


138  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

tance  in  the  British  peerage  was  rubbed 
up  and  made  to  do  duty  in  reminiscent 
conversation.  To  Lady  Melrose  such 
warmed-over  food  was  not  refreshment. 
Her  fad  was  temperance,  and  she  had 
much  rather  have  discussed  the  blue- 
ribbon  movement  in  America,  and  the 
probabilities  of  getting  an  audience  to 
listen  to  her  expound  her  views  in  New 
York  slums,  than  to  indulge  in  Mayfair 
maundering. 

"  Yes,  I  dessay.  Very  smart,  very 
pretty,"  she  answered  to  somebody's 
appeal  as  to  whether  she  did  not  find 
the  present  scene  attractive.  Then, 
turning  to  Mrs.  Bertie  Clay,  "  I  wish 
you'd  keep  them  off  me  for  a  bit," 
added  her  ladyship,  hunching  her 
mauve  shoulders  and  yawning.  "  If 
they  would  sit  still  I  wouldn't  mind  it. 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  139 


They  talk  so  much.  And  everybody 
makes  me  give  my  views  of  everything. 
I  don't  want  to  be  made  to  talk.  I 
want  to  be  told  stories,  like  those 
What's-his-name  told  me  at  dinner. 
He's  a  doctor,  aint  he,  What's-his- 
name  ?  He's  really  the  best  of  the  lot. 
I  suppose  he  learned  'em  to  amuse  his 
patients." 

"  Oh,  but  it's  a  long  time  since  Dr. 
Clarkson  practiced,"  interposed  Mrs. 
Floyd-Curtis  hastily.  "  You  mustn't 
think  he  practices.  He  has  an  inde 
pendent  fortune,  and  is  one  of  our 
most  popular  men  in  society." 

"  I've  another  story  for  you,  Lady 
Melrose,"  said  the  object  of  their  re 
marks,  coming  up  at  this  interesting 
juncture.  "  Heard  it  just  now  in  the 
billiard-room,  and  booked  it  for  your 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


benefit.  The  place  was  —  well,  say  Red 
Gulch,  Oregon  ;  the  scene,  a  hanging. 
Red  Gulch,  you  know,  was  a  brand- 
new  '  city  '  in  the  hands  of  an  enter 
prising  land  company,  consisting,  in 
point  of  fact,  of  a  store  and  two  houses, 
near  which  the  gallows  had  been 
placed.  From  far  and  near  people  had 
come  to  enjoy  the  exercises  of  the  day. 
No  such  gathering,  in  style  and  num 
bers,  had  been  seen  or  was  likely  to  be 
seen.  At  the  moment  when  the  clergy 
man  had  said  his  prayer,  the  condemned 
man  had  stepped  upon  the  trap,  and 
the  sheriff  had  adjusted  the  noose,  a 
thin,  excited  man  in  a  linen  duster,  his 
hat  in  hand,  full  of  papers,  dashed  up 
the  steps  of  the  gallows,  and  with  a 
profound  bow  addressed  the  group. 
"  '  If  the  gentleman  now  occupying 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


the  platform  will  give  way  for  one 
moment,'  he  remarked  ;  then,  turning1 
to  the  crowd,  '  Ladies  and  gentlemen,' 
he  went  on,  '  I  call  your  attention  to 
the  fact  that  the  Red  Gulch  Land 
Improvement  Company  has  still  for 
sale  a  number  of  valuable  corner  lots, 
which  to  those  buying  now  will  be  sold 
by  me  at  prices  within  the  reach,  of 
all—' 

"  So  much  he  had  said  before  he 
could  be  stopped  ;  and  having  accom 
plished  his  purpose,  cordially  thanking 
and  saluting  the  sheriff  and  the  con 
demned,  the  intruder  stepped  down, 
and  the  '  gentleman  occupying  the 
platform  '  stepped  '  out.' ' 

"  Horrible!"  cried  Mrs.  Floyd-Cur 
tis. 

"  Fancy,  now,"  said  her  ladyship. 


142  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

"  It's  a  fact,"  remarked  Clarkson 
beamingly.  "Another?  Well,  I  was 
traveling  in — er — Missouri — last  year, 
and  a  fellow  in  the  smoking-car  with 
me  sighed  deeply  as  we  passed  a  field 
of  PTO  win  or  wheat. 

o  o 

" '  Things  aint  like  they  was,'  he 
said  sentimentally.  '  Ten  years  ago  I 
owned  land  in  this  vicinity — lived  here, 
in  short.  Us  gentlemen  of  the  neigh 
borhood  took  a  man  up  on  suspicion  of 
horse-stealing,  and  he  never  denied  it, 
and  the  boys  just  hung  him  to  a  tree. 
Well,  we  buried  him  in  this  here  field 
we're  passing,  and  'bout  a  week  later 
came  the  news  that  he  never  done  it. 
He  warn't  no  horse-thief,  after  all.  He 
was  a  respectable  citizen  living  in  the 
next  county,  and  the  wust  he  ever  done 
was  to  kill  a  man  in  a  quarrel  over 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  143 


cards.  He  thought,  you  see,  we  \vas 
a-hanging  him  for  that.  Of  course  if 
we'd  have  known  all  he  done  was  to 
shoot  a  Kansas  man,  we'd  have  never 
took  the  matter  up.  The  joke  was  on 
us.  But  I  told  the  boys  I'd  make  all 
square  with  the  widow,  and  I  did.' 

"  '  How  so  ? '    I  asked. 

"  'Well,  they  just  got  up  resolutions 
of  sympathy  with  the  family  of  the  de 
ceased,  and  I  rode  over  with  'em  and 
saw  the  widow,  and — married  her.  I 
live  there  now,  and  she's  in  the  ladies' 
car  behind.' ' 

"  Fancy,  now,"  said  her  ladyship 
again. 

An  hour  later  and  the  dance  was  in 
full  swing.  Jencks,  who  had  several 
times  gone  to  the  threshold  of  the  ball 
room  door  and  turned  back,  at  last 


144  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


strolled  in,  taking  his  seat  in  a  remote 
corner.  Lily  was,  as  he  soon  discerned, 
queen-rose  of  the  rosebud  garden  of 
girls,  and  on  exceedingly  good  terms 
with  her  surroundings.  He  did  not 
suppose  she  had  noticed  his  arrival  ; 
but  in  one  of  the  figures  of  the  cotillon 
where  the  dancer  may  choose  a  partner 
she  came  swiftly  in  his  direction,  ap 
pealing  to  him  with  a  little  gesture  of 
command. 

"  I'm  awfully  sorry,  but  I  don't 
dance,"  he  said,  his  heart  thumping  at 
the  opportunity  he  had  lost.  "  I  have 
no  right  to  be  here.  But  if  to-morrow 
I  may  see  you  for  one  moment — " 

"  Come  to  service  at  the  little 
church  ;  you  may  walk  home  with  me," 
she  answered,  melting  from  his  sight 
into  the  multicolored  throng. 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  145 

Next  day,  which  was  Sunday,  a 
light,  drizzling  rain  fell,  and  many  of 
the  ladies,  Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis  among 
others,  chose  to  stay  indoors.  Rain 
had  ceased,  but  the  yellow  trees  ex 
haled  moisture  and  the  lake  seemed  to 
be  veiled  in  gray,  as  the  two  young 
people  set  out  for  their  walk  back  to 
the  club  house. 

"  I  wonder  what  I  should  say  to  you 
if  I  met  you  in  fair  weather,"  Lily  re 
marked.  "  You  are  a  perfect  rain- 
crow." 

"  And  you  are  a  stormy  petrel,  that 
has  become  entangled  in  the  rigging, 
to  be  held  sacred  on  my  voyage 
through  life." 

"Well  done!"  cried  Lily.  "You 
have  certainly  improved  in  gallantry. 
I  have  hopes  of  you.  Ten  years  in 


I46  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

America,  and  we  shall  not  know  you 
for  a  British  stoic." 

"  I  am  afraid  not,"  returned  Jencks,  a 
tremor  in  his  voice  that  he  could  not 
entirely  repress.  "  But,  indeed,  I  can't 
talk  nonsense  about  you  and  me." 

Lily  tried  to  rally  to  her  rescue 
something  to  turn  away  the  tide  she 
felt  was  ready  to  burst  and  overwhelm 
her. 

"  Don't  talk  then,"  she  said.  "  Let 
me  do  all  the  talking.  Then  I'll  be 
sure  to  go  home  and  tell  mamma  that 
Mr.  Jencks  is  the  most  agreeable  man 
I  know." 

"You  had  better  say  as  little  as 
possible  about  me.  I'm  not  inscribed 
in  your  mother's  books.  When  I 
bowed  to  her  last  night  she  looked  as 
if  she  were  trying  to  think  where  she 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  M7 


had  met  that  person,  and  Mrs.  Clay 
simply  cut  me  in  eold  blood." 

"  You  were  never  half  civil  to  Mrs. 
Clay.  She  gave  you  more  than  one 
opportunity  on  shipboard." 

"  I  don't  like  that  kind  of  woman. 
She  makes  my  flesh  creep.  And — but 
I've  no  right  to  say  what  I  began  to 
say." 

"  Go  on,  please." 

"  It's  only  that  I  don't  think  she's  a 
good  friend  of  yours." 

"  She's  a  very  intimate  friend  of 
mamma's,"  said  Lily,  a  shade  crossing 
her  bright  face.  "And  she  has  been 
so  kind  to  me.  I  believe  she  can  make 
mamma  do  anything  she  pleases." 

There  was  a  pause.  Jencks  was 
thinking,  with  terror,  that  his  worst 
fears  for  Lily  would  be  confirmed. 


I48  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

"  I  'm  not  exactly  meek,"  the  girl 
went  on.  "  But  when  I  love  people  I 
like  to  please  them  in  every  way.  My 
mother  has  been  the  tenderest,  the 
most  loving  person  to  me,  except  my 
dear  old  daddy — and  Mrs.  Clay  is  so 
captivating.  Oh,  why  did  you  put  it 
into  my  head  she's  not  my  friend  ?" 

"  I  am  very  sorry,"  Jencks  said, 
humbly.  "  It  was  not  considerate  of 
you.  I  was  thinking  perhaps  chiefly 
of  myself." 

"  But  you  said  she  makes  your  flesh 
creep." 

"  Good  heavens !  so  I  did,"  cried 
Jencks.  "That  was  abominably  brutal. 
It's  well  I'm  to  leave  these  parts  on 
Wednesday  for  Illyria." 

"I  never  knew  such  a  plain-spoken 
person  as  you  are,"  she  resumed. 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  M9 


"  But  when  I'm  inclined  to  take 
offense  it  comes  over  me  that  you 
have  never  told  me  anything  that  was 
not  true — and  truth  seems  to  me  so 
beautiful.  It  is  like  a  rock  to  rest 
upon.  So  I  forgive  you  the  rest ;  but 
please  don't  abuse  my  friends,  for 
they  are  all  I  have." 

"  Soon  you  will  have  a  hundred  new 
friends  to  choose  from.  In  a  few 
weeks  they  will  be  swarming  around 
you.  It  will  be  only  a  question  to 
whom  you  will  throw  the  handker 
chief." 

"Your  voice  sounds  cross.  Why 
are  you  like  a  peevish  child  ?  Why 
should  I  not  have  friends  ?  You,  who 
are  going  to  Illyria,  what  difference 
can  it  make  to  you  ?" 

O   Lily,  Lily !    what  has  become  of 


15°  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

your  pride  of  young  womanhood  that 
you  stoop  to  set  this  snare  ? 

Jencks  did  not  answer  her  at  first. 
He  stalked  along,  swinging  his  closed 
umbrella,  and  splashing  the  water  out 
of  little  pools.  She  stole  a  side  glance 
at  his  face,  and  saw  it  dark  and  lower 
ing,  the  vein  between  his  brows 
swollen,  the  lines  around  his  mouth 
more  set  than  ever  before.  She 
thought  she  had  offended  him,  and, 
like  the  child  she  was,  moved  flutter 
ing  closer  to  his  side,  and  looked  up 
into  his  eyes. 

"  Don't  be  angry,"  she  said.  "  I  did 
not  mean  to  hurt  you.  I  can't  bear  to 
have  you  look  at  me  like  that." 

"  God  help  me ! "  the  young  man 
burst  out  suddenly.  "Oh,  you  are  not 
blind;  you  have  a  heart  that  feels! 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


Don't  you  see  that  I  love  you  better 
than  life  ? — that  if  I  asked  you  to 
marry  me  I'd  be  a  cur?  That  day 
upon  the  steamer  I  thought  for  a  mo 
ment — one  mad  moment — that  you 
might  care  for  me.  I'll  declare  it  gave 
me  more  pain  than  pleasure.  But,  in 
the  time  since,  I've  seen  that  it  was 
my  own  delusion  ;  and  I  am  glad.  If  I 
go  away  from  you,  it  will  be  with  reso 
lution  to  live  this  passion  down.  It's 
because  I  respect  my  manhood  as 
much  as  I  love  you  that  I'm  going; 
can't  you  see  ?" 

Lily,  for  all  her  coquetry  of  manner, 
knew  not  the  arts  of  evasion.  What 
was  trembling  on  her  lips  to  say,  and 
was  yet  unsaid  because  he  had  told  her 
he  did  not  mean  to  ask  her  to  be  his 
wife,  might  have  changed  the  course 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


of  events  and  of  this  story.  She  was 
conscious  of  a  wave  of  protest,  of  long 
ing  not  to  be  left,  like  a  child's  cling 
ing  to  the  one  who  bids  him  farewell 
and  sets  him  down  to  go  away.  And 
while  these  emotions  were  tearing  her 
heart  a  carriage  came  around  a  turn  in 
the  road  and  the  horses  were  pulled 
sharply  up.  Within  sat  Lily's  mother 
and  Mrs.  Clay,  the  latter  languid  and 
indifferent,  appearing  to  look  at  them 
through  narrowed  eyes. 

"  Lily  !  Why,  Lily,  you  imprudent 
child!"  cried  Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis.  "It 
was  only  two  days  ago  you  were  com 
plaining  of  sore  throat.  Come  in  with 
me  ;  I  am  taking  Mrs.  Clay  for  a  turn 
before  luncheon.  Mr.  —  er  —  Banks  —  " 

"  Jencks,  madam,"  said  that  person, 
bowing. 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  153 


"  Mr.  Jencks  can  no  doubt  find  his 
own  way  to  the  club.  There,  Thomas, 
you  may  drive  on  now.  Good-morn 
ing,  Mr.  Banks." 

Jencks  stood  like  a  stock  upon  the 
roadside,  watching  the  carriage  roll 
away.  Two  men  in  knickerbockers, 
with  billycock  hats  and  blackthorn 
sticks,  came  up  with  him.  The' young 
fellows,  who  were  off  for  a  ten-mile 
tramp,  eyed  him  curiously,  and  be 
stowed  on  him  a  civil  greeting  as  they 
exchanged  remarks  about  roads  and 
distances.  This  circumstance  gave 
Jencks  the  idea  of  setting  out  on  his 
own  account  for  a  walk  of  indefinite 
duration.  He  struck  over  the  hills, 
and  did  not  make  his  appearance  at 
the  club  house  till  after  dark. 

While   Lily's  maid    was  engaged  in 


154  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

attiring  her  young  lady  next  morning, 
a  knock  at  the  door  developed  a  bell 
boy  with  a  note.  When  she  could  be 
alone  to  read  it  Lily  found  these  pen 
ciled  words  : 

I  write  this  at  the  station  waiting  for  the  train  that 
will  take  me  away  from  you.  I  tried  to  pass  out  of 
your  life  without  another  word,  but  vainly.  With  my 
whole  heart  and  soul  I  love  you.  Good-by,  and  be 
happy  always,  and  light  of  heart  as  you  deserve  to  be 
and  are. 

I  think  it  no  shame  to  our  Lily  that 
she  kissed  the  prosaic  bit  of  railway 
paper  again  and  again,  raining  over  it 
a  summer  tempest  of  girlish  tears.  It 
seemed  to  her  that  a  great  black  stone 
had  rolled  across  the  pathway  of  her 
life.  This  man,  this  stranger,  who  had 

o 

been  but  a  short  time  before  one  of  the 
vast  army  of  entities  born  into  the 
world  to  cross  and  recross  one  another 


THE  ANGLOMANTACS.  155 


unrecognized,  how  had  he  suddenly  be 
come  the  master  of  her  heart  ?  That 
is  a  mystery  it  would  puzzle  a  deeper 
philosopher  than  Lily  to  answer.  One 
fact,  however,  remained  indisputable. 
He  had  come,  he  had  gone ;  and  with 
him  the  spring-time  of  her  woman's 
life. 

"  Yes,  he  left  last  night.  You  man 
aged  the  matter  beautifully,  you  dear 
thing,"  said  Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis  to  Mrs. 
Clay  the  same  morning,  when  the 
ladies  were  on  their  way  to  see  a 
match  at  shooting  pigeons. 

"  I  knew  from  the  moment  he  turned 
up  here  what  his  little  game  was," 
Barbara  observed.  "  Banting,  who  is 
a  goose,  ought  to  have  known  better 
than  to  bring  him." 

"  You  are  quite  sure  there  has  been 


[5<$  THE  ANGLO  MANIACS. 


no  gossip  about  their  meetings  on  the 
ship?" 

"  Everything  is  talked  about,"  said 
Barbara,  discreetly  generalizing.  "  But 
it  will  die  out  soon.  The  worst  they 
can  say  is  that  she  flirted  —  and  in 
America,  what's  that  ?  " 

"  But  I  never  knew  Lily  to  want 
to  flirt  before." 

"  My  dear  lady,  it  is  an  appetite 
that  to  most  of  us  comes  with  eating," 
Mrs.  Clay  said,  not  refraining  from  a 
sneer.  "  Those  big  blond  men,  with 
broad  shoulders  and  an  air  of  caring 
only  for  themselves,  are  the  most  dan 
gerous  to  girls.  There's  no  denying 
the  man  was  good  enough  to  look  at." 

"  But  his  name — how  could  my  Lily 
fancy  any  one  with  such  a  dreadful 
name  ?  " 


THE  ANGLO.MAXIACS.  157 

"  Well,  he  has  taken  his  name  away 
with  him,  and  we  may  hope  never  to 
hear  of  it  again.  All  I  advise  is,  that 
for  the  future  you  keep  an  eye  on 
Lily.  This  kind  of  affair  at  starting 
may  give  her  a  taste  for  them.  Be 
sides,  there  are  other  reasons — did  I 
tell  you  ?  Lady  Melrose  says  her  son 
has  cabled  that  he  will  join  her  for  the 
journey  to  the  West." 

"  But  I  thought  he  never  sees  his 
mother  more  than  once  or  twice  a 
year,"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis 
with  sparkling  eyes. 

"  Perhaps  he  means  to  turn  over  a 
new  leaf,  and  will  begin  by  attaching 
himself  to  his  mother's  apron-string. 
Perhaps  he's  tired  of  England.  When 
I  knew  him  he  was  tired  of  everything. 
At  any  rate  he  is  coming  to  New  York." 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


"  I  don't  think  I  mentioned,"  re 
sumed  Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis,  after  a  mo 
ment's  silence,  "  that  Lady  Melrose 
has  promised  me  a  visit  before  she 
sets  out  for  the  West." 

"  She  is  so  very  fond  of  you," 
answered  Barbara,  with  a  cooing  little 
laugh,  as  she  turned  over  for  admira 
tion  the  new  bangle,  with  its  ruby 
solitaire,  that  Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis  had 
that  morning  clasped  upon  her  wrist. 
"  And  you  will  find  Melrose  so  very 
nice." 

MY  DEAR  MELROSE  [had  his  mother  in  America 
written  to  the  young  lord  who  was  tired  of  every 
thing]  :  What  I  am  going  to  say  will  no  doubt  bother 
you.  But  you  know  I  never  was  by  way  of  being 
afraid  of  coining  to  the  point.  There  are  some  people 
here  who  have  a  daughter  —  I  came  over  in  the  boat 
with  them,  and  they  were  very  civil.  At  first  I  thought 
this  girl  was  bad-tempered,  but  now  I  think  she  is 
only  saucy,  and  her  temper  is  well  enough—  it  is  the 
habit  these  American  girls  have  of  asserting  them- 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  159 


selves  in  the  presence  of  their  superiors  ;  and  that,  it 
appears,  one  must  get  used  to,  like  the  iced  water  and 
the  stuffy  hot  houses,  where  you  can't  breathe  without 
opening  the  window.  She  is  very  pretty, — so  pretty 
that  people  over  here  are  making  as  much  of  her  as  if 
she  were  one  of  our  princesses, — and  her  fortune  is 
immense.  Her  own  mother  has  told  me  that  if  the 
girl  marries  to  please  her  she  will  receive  four  million 
dollars  upon  her  wedding  day,  with  more  to  come 
when  the  mother  dies ;  and  there  is  but  one  other  child, 
a  boy  at  Eton,  and  you  know  the  children  here  inherit 
share  and  share  alike.  Now,  knowing  the  fuss  you 
are  in  about  money  matters,  and  hoping  that  you  have 
at  last  seen  the  necessity  of  settling  down  to  keep  up 
the  estate,  it  occurs  to  me  this  chance  is  excellent  for 
you.  Of  course  they  will  jump  at  it.  The  father  of 
this  Mrs.  Curtis  made  his  money  in — Something  Oil,  I 
think  ;  but  he  was  formerly  a  grocer,  and  her  husband 
still  keeps  a  "  store,"  though  to  be  sure  he  need  not. 

One  never  sees  the  husband,  but  Mrs.  C is  now  in 

the  best  society.  Their  home  is  a  perfect  palace,  finer 
than  Lord  John's,  or  even  the  duke's.  This  mother 
and  daughter  dress  in  a  way  that  surprises  Timpkins, 
and  seem  to  have  always  worn  these  fineries.  When 
I  say  house,  you'll  understand  I  mean  the  town-house. 
They  have  no  country-seat,  but  have  bought  land  and 
are  about  to  build  a  cottage.  Everybody  in  America 
is  talking  of  buying  or  building  in  the  country.  But 
when  you  come  to  see  their  country  homes,  they  are 
just  smart  villas  on  the  public  road, — only  fancy,  on 


160  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


the  public  road, — or  else  they  have  a  beggarly  few 
acres  around  them,  and  the  house  always  in  sight. 
Some  of  them  live  so  close  together  that  I  believe  they 
can  talk  from  one  veranda  to  another,  which  I  con 
sider  shocking.  Even  their  great  men,  the  ones  worth 
from  fifty  to  a  hundred  million  dollars,  do  the  same. 

If  you  don't  care  for  this  girl  after  seeing  her,  you 
might  go  with  me  to  Chicago,  and  then  go  on  and  get 
a  bit  of  hunting  somewhere,  so  the  trip  wouldn't  be 
thrown  away.  You  said  you  wanted  to  try  for  moun 
tain  sheep  in  Wyoming.  I'm  doing  very  well,  and 
would  be  willing  to  wait  in  New  York  until  you  come : 
and  Timpkins  has  no  complaint  to  make,  as  the  beds 
are  good,  and  one  can  have  tea  at  any  time.  I've  had 
no  chance  yet  to  speak  in  public  about  temperance, 
but  there's  a  field  for  it  in  New  York,  and  I  shall 
certainly  hope  to  do  so  before  long.  The  most  de 
grading  exhibition  of  the  general  prevalence  of  this 
vice  among  the  lower  classes  came  to  my  personal  ex 
perience  a  few  days  since,  and  if  you  meet  dear  Lady 
Jane  I  hope  you  won't  forget  to  mention  it  to  her. 

We'd  been,  Timpkins  and  I,  to  see  the  asylum  for 
lunatics,  and  some  reformatories,  and  so  on,  upon  an 
island  near  New  York,  and  coming  back  the  boat 
landed  us  at  a  wharf  where  there  were  no  cabs  to  be 
had.  So  we  took  a  little  tram-car  intending  to  go  to 
the  hotel ;  and  a  most  filthy  place  it  was,  with  market 
people  and  laborers  squeezed  up  to  me,  and  such  a 
smell  !  I  thought  I  would  just  improve  the  opportunity 
to  distribute  leaflets,  and  to  say  a  word  or  two  as  we 


THE  AXGLOMA.VIACS.  161 


.went  along.  While  I  was  getting  to  my  bag  the  driver 
of  the  tram  began  to  ring  a  little  gong,  and  I  observed 
that  everybody's  eyes  were  fixed  on  me.  A  woman  next 
to  me  explained  (very  rudely)  that  we  were  expected 
to  drop  our  fare  into  a  box  fastened  near  the  door 
beside  the  driver.  Then  I  found  my  purse  was  gone; 
luckily  enough  I'd  but  a  few  shillings  in  it,  for  I've  not 
heard  of  it  since.  By  that  time  the  car  had  stopped 
and  the  driver  put  his  head  in,  and  I  was  in  a  pretty 
pickle. 

"  Have  you  no  money,  Timpkins  ?  "  I  asked,  and 
when  she  said,  "  No,  my  Lady,  not  a  penny,  please 
your  Ladyship,"  there  was  the  rudest  laugh.  It  was 
evident  they  were  all  intoxicated — every  one.  One 
man  said  we  were  ruin  Salvation  gals,  and  the  brute 
of  a  driver  said  he'd  seen  my  kind  of  a  ladyship  try  to 
make  a  ride  before.  Just  then  Timpkins,  who  had 
gone  quite  pale  and  was  crying,  fished  up  out  of  the 
pocket  of  her  gown  some  bits  of  silver.  You  may  de- 
pend  we  got  out  of  the  wretched  hole  quickly,  and  for 
some  time  wandered  around  in  the  mire  of  a  slum  be 
side  a  river  till  we  met  a  policeman,  who  found  a  cab 
that  took  us  to  the  hotel.  I  shall  mention  this  in  my 
lectures  when  I  return. 

The  way  I  happen  to  know  about  these  Curtises  is 
that  the  mother  has  been  so  uncommonly  polite.  To 
show  you  how  they  live,  soon  after  we  landed  from 
the  boat  she  invited  me  to  an  "  informal  luncheon," 
at  her  house  in  what  is  called  Washington  Square. 
Of  course  I  went  in  my  every-day  gown  and  bonnet. 


162  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


expecting  to  get  a  chop  and  a  potato,  and  perhaps  a 
glass  of  beer.  But,  dear  me  !  It  was  superb  ;  a  great 
banquet,  with  the  rooms  darkened,  and  lighted  by 
lamps  and  candles,  and  such  banks  of  flowers  as  we'd 
never  think  of  ordering  in  except  for  state  affairs. 
We  were  at  table  for  nearly  three  hours,  and  at  every 
place  were  five  or  six  wine-glasses,  and  the  table 
loaded  down  with  gold  and  silver,  and  Sevres  and 
Dresden  and  Minton  china  for  each  remove.  Twelve 
women  were  at  table,  and  they  looked  for  the  world 
and  all  like  Kate  Reily's  fashion-plates,  and  talked  all 
together  in  the  shrillest  way.  When  we  got  up  to  go 
into  the  drawing-room  to  drink  coffee  the  servants 
gave  us  bouquets.  A  person  at  the  luncheon  told  me 
she  heard  our  hostess  had  ordered  all  the  roses  of  a 
single  variety  that  could  be  purchased  in  town,  cost 
ing  at  least  five  shillings  for  each  rose.  We  fetched 
away  also  menus  printed  in  gold  on  satin,  bags  of 
sugar-plums,  and  other  costly  knickknacks.  It  was 
quite  embarrassing.  I  felt  as  if  I  had  been  shoplifting. 
And  this,  they  tell  me,  is  an  ordinary  kind  of  enter 
tainment  among  the  ladies  of  New  York.  One  must 
not  expect  to  meet  their  men  at  luncheons.  They  are 
at  work  "  down  town." 

Do,  my  dear  Melrose,  think  over  what  I  have  said. 
You  know  better  than  I  do  how  badly  you  need  the 
money.  Fancy  my  hearing  a  man  say,  yesterday,  that 
he  would  rather  be  a  hack-driver  in  New  York  than  a 
poor  peer  in  England.  But  all  these  people  exag 
gerate,  you  know,  and  there  are  so  many  of  us  in  the 


THE  A.\'<;r.0.irA.\TACS.  163 


same  box.  Marrying  an  American  isn't  what  it  used 
to  be.  If  I  were  not  hurrying  to  catch  this  mail  I'd 
tell  you  more  about  the  girl  herself.  On  second 
thoughts,  I  send  you  inclosed  her  photograph.  I  dare 
say  you  will  be  surprised,  as  I  was,  at  a  certain  air  she 
has — quite  like  one  of  us.  But  then  most  things  here 
are  a  surprise.  They  don't  talk  a  bit  like  Americans 
in  novels.  I  am  very  much  disappointed,  on  the 
whole,  at  the  want  of  local  color.  But  it  is  cheaper 
living  than  I  thought.  They  invite  you  all  the  time. 


V. 

"  IT'S  really  kind  of  you  to  give  us  a 
quiet  evening  now,"  said  Mrs.  Emory, 
with  the  pretty  emphasis  peculiar  to 
some  women  of  New  York.  "  In  Lent 
I  might  have  hoped  for  it,  but  now— 

"  In  Lent  there'll  be  nothing  left  of 
me  to  come,"  said  Lily.  "  Of  course  I 
shall  dine  with  you  with  pleasure.  It 
is  kindness  to  myself." 

When  the  occasion  arrived  upon 
which  Lily  was  to  perform  this  double 
act  of  beneficence  it  found  her  one  of  a 
small  party  in  a  house  modest  in  size, 
but  full  of  the  belongings  of  culture 
just  beginning  to  assert  itself  in  the 
acquisition  of  minor  works  of  art.  The 
165 


166  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

first  floor  of  the  pleasant  little  home 
was  given  up  to  a  narrow  passage-way, 
where  on  opening  the  front  door  the 
maid-servant  had  to  remain  caged  be 
hind  it  to  allow  the  entrance  of  the 
guest  ;  a  drawing-room,  which  was 
library  and  picture-gallery  as  well,  with 
a  chimney-place  devised  for  burning 
wood  on  andirons,  and  a  faint  odor  of 
tobacco  smoke  mingling  with  that  of 
some  violets  in  Venice  glasses  ;  and  a 
dining-room  in  the  rear,  where  the  sun 
at  breakfast-time  made  atonement  for 
the  again  enforced  compression  of  the 
maid  when  circling  a  table  where  eight 
might  chance  to  sit. 

When  they  were  first  going  to  house 
keeping,  and  his  wife  was  out  of  town, 
Fred  Emory  had  visited  an  intelligence 
office  with  the  hope  of  securing  an  at- 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  167 


tendant  physically  adapted  to  the  needs 
of  his  new  home.  After  an  ordeal  in 
selection  over  which  he  had  chosen  to 
draw  a  veil,  he  came  back  exhausted, 
but  doggedly  determined  tp  look  no 
more.  That  day  appeared  in  his 
premises  a  female  grenadier,  who,  tak 
ing  the  family  in  charge,  had  remained 
with  them  ever  since.  The  mammoth, 
confessing  coyly  to  the  name  of  Dottie, 
resigned  herself  to  Martha,  and  was 
more  intimately  known  to  the  habitues 
of  the  house  as  "  The  Misfit."  When 
increasing  prosperity  and  the  demands 
of  fashion  entailed  upon  the  Emorys 
consideration  of  a  butler  the  idea  was 
dismissed,  as  until  Martha  should  die 
or  marry  the  milkman  there  was 
no  hope  of  emancipation  from  her 
thrall. 


1 68  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

On  the  second  floor  of  the  Emory 
abode  were  the  quarters  occupied  by 
wife  and  husband  and  a  couple  of  pat 
tern  cherubs,  in  a  nursery  as  bright  as 
sunshine,  .chintz,  and  tidiness  could 
make  it.  The  Emory  babes,  accus 
tomed  to  the  companionship  of  their 
elders,  were  self-possessed,  but  happily 
unspoiled.  When  sent  for  to  come  be 
low  they  received  and  bestowed  greet 
ings  with  rational  understanding  of 
their  relation  to  society,  resorting 
thereafter  to  the  friends  in  whom  the 
child's  unerring  instinct  told  them  sym 
pathy  was  waiting ;  or  else,  perching 
side  by  side  like  sparrows  on  a  tele 
graph  wire,  they  loved  to  look  over 
certain  bound  volumes  of  Punch,  the 
boy  spelling  out  to  the  girl  the  legends 
his  father  had  explained  to  him.  It 


77/7?  ANGLOMANIACS.  169 


never  occurred  to  people  to  think  Hal 
and  Gladys  in  the  way. 

Houses  however  small,  and  maid-ser 
vants  however  disproportioned  ;  violets 
in  Venice  glass,  good  cigars,  books, 
bronzes,  etchings,  hickory-wood  for 
burnino-  on  esthetic  andirons ;  a  din- 

o 

ner-table  like  an  island  of  snow  set 
with  bright  glass  and  silver,  and  grow 
ing  ferns  under  a  widespreading  shade 
of  crimson  silk  that  lets  fall  a  radiance 
of  light  on  table  only  ;  a  pretty  wife 
and  two  picturesque  children  able  to 
indulge  in  nestling  on  downy  sofas — all 
this  does  not  come  for  the  whistling  in 
New  York  to  a  man  who  has  begun 
life,  after  graduating  from  college, 
without  a  much  larger  capital  than  the 
traditional  penny  in  his  pocket.  Fred 
Emory  had  worked  long  and  hard  at 


170  THE  AXGLOMANIACS. 


his  profession  —  law  —  before  he  ven 
tured  to  think  of  marriage.  He  was 
past  thirty  when  he  took  Grace  Chaun- 
cey  for  his  wife.  Grace,  whose  people 
had  been  of 'the  gentry  in  New  York 
who  had  received  and  entertained  Gen 
eral  Washington  after  his  inauguration 
there  as  President,  had  a  small  income 
of  her  own,  and  was,  besides,  wonder 
fully  clever  in  managing  and  shaping 
matters  of  household  comfort.  Affairs 
had  prospered  with  the  two  ;  they  had 
health  and  competence,  and  were  but 
recently  returned  from  the  inevitable 
summer  of  European  travel.  About 
their  home  hung  an  atmosphere  of  lit 
erature  and  art,  decidedly  pleasant  to 
an  outsider.  Emory,  who  was  what  is 
called  a  man's  man,  had  not  altered  all 
the  habits  of  his  bachelor  life  in  marry- 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


ing  at  thirty-three.  Around  him  con 
tinued  to  gather  artists,  authors,  edi 
tors,  who  were  accustomed  to  mount 
upstairs  to  the  den  on  the  third  floor 
where  Fred's  old  worn  furniture  from 
his  quarters  in  the  University  Building 
had  been  transferred,  feeling  assured 
of  Mrs.  Emory's  liberality  of  view  in 
the  matter  of  evening  clothes,  and  of 
the  satisfactory  resolution,  early  at 
tained  by  Emory's  kids,  to  sleep 
through  anything. 

Grace  was  an  advanced  musician, 
frequenting  the  concerts  of  the  Phil 
harmonic  and  Symphony  societies  en 
virtuoso  rather  than  en  amateur,  and 
sternly  refusing  invitations  to  the  opera 
to  sit  in  the  boxes  of  her  chattering 
friends  when  there  were  Wagner  meta 
physics  to  be  enjoyed  by  following  the 


172  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


score  from  a  modest  place  in  the  par 
quet.  She  was  also  fond  of  painting, 
and  had  recently  taken  up  etching  as  a 
pastime,  alternated  with  the  claims  of 
an  excessive  correspondence.  She  was 
president  of  a  musical  society  where 
artists  and  amateurs  united,  secretary 
of  a  Woman's  Essay  Club,  member  of 
a  Society  for  Promoting  Higher  Edu 
cation  for  Women,  manager  of  an 
Infants'  Hospital,  and  of  the  board  of 
a  league  to  entertain  shop-girls  in  a 
hall  leased  for  the  purpose.  In  addi 
tion  to  the  notes  written,  minutes  kept, 
and  reports  drawn  up  in  this  connec 
tion,  Mrs.  Emory  had  contributed  to 
one  of  the  leading  magazines  some 
articles  upon  the  Niebelungen  Trilogy 
from  the  standpoint  of  a  Wagner 
devotee.  She  received  her  friends  on 


ANGLOMANIACS. 


Monday  afternoons  and  managed  to 
go  a  good  deal  into  society.  To  those 
inclined  to  look  askance  at  these  pro 
ceedings  it  was  therefore  a  distinct 
discouragement  when  prosperity  kept 
hand  in  hand  with  Grace's  household. 
Her  children,  Fred's  evident  content 
ment  with  his  lot  in  life,  the  sheen  of 
her  door-knob  and  bell-pull,  the  good 
fit  of  her  jackets,  and  the  renown  of 
her  roly-poly  puddings,  were  unanswer 
able  facts  to  the  discontented  commen 
tators  upon  what  John  Stuart  Mill  calls 
the  "  interrupted  sentence  "  of  a  busy 
woman's  life. 

As  a  matter  of  course,  the  Emorys 
always  had  cards  for  the  first  view  of 
any  great  picture,  or  collection  of  pic 
tures,  porcelains,  or  bric-a-brac  to  be 
paraded  before  the  metropolitan  pub- 


174  'HIE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

lie,  and  were  made  welcome  in  studios 
least  accessible  to  casual  sight-seekers. 
In  their  sixteen  by  twenty  drawing- 
room  might  be  met,  on  easy  footing, 
certain  lions  who  had  positively  de 
clined  to  roar  in  arenas  more  extended. 
From  their  little  cabinet  piano  were 
evoked  strains  of  enchanting  melody 
by  fingers  elsewhere  only  to  be  bought 
by  high-piled  shekels. 

For  Grace  great  singers  had  sung 
the  folk-songs  of  their  native  land ;  to 
advance  the  good  fellowship  of  an 
evening  at  the  Emorys  a  player  world 
renowned  had  volunteered  a  delicious 
bit  of  off-hand  recitation,  and  an 
author  of  uncompromising  hostility 
toward  personal  exhibition  had  read 
aloud  his  latest  poem  in  manuscript. 
Framed  upon  their  walls  were  auto- 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  i?5 

graph  squibs,  caricatures,  sketches,  and 
here  and  there  a  finished  study,  by 
master  hands.  The  tone  of  the  whole 
house  was  easy,  bright,  and  unaffected. 
Sometimes,  to  complete  the  caviare 
essence  of  Bohemia  in  her  dish,  Grace 
consented  to  let  Fred  have  one  of  his 
old  bachelor  suppers,  consisting  of 
marrow-bones  on  toast  or  Welsh  rare 
bits  and  bottled  beer.  These  symposia 
were  less  frequent  as  the  wave  of  con 
ventionality  overwhelming  New  York 
made  itself  felt  in  this  independent 
household.  Who  could  attend  a  Floyd- 
Curtis  banquet,  for  example,  and  come 
back  to  sit  down  with  a  band  of  con 
spirators  in  morning  coats  around  a 
chafing-dish  at  i  A.M.  ? 

Lily,  who  had  first  met  Grace  Emory 
at  a  class  where  young  women   went 


176  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

to  sit  on  camp-chairs  and  lend  ear  to 
chamber-music  rhapsodically  rendered 
by  four  young  German  instrumenta 
lists,  conceived  for  her  an  instant 
liking.  Grace,  when  rallied  by  her 
husband  for  running  with  all  the  other 
sheep  in  town  in  search  of  a  sensation, 
answered  that  she  could  not  pretend  to 
resist  such  a  study  in  Titian's  coloring, 
and  that  the  girl's  sweetness  of  disposi 
tion  had  finished  by  conquering  her. 
The  two  coalesced  into  a  friendship 
that  was  the  more  important  to  Lily 
because  of  the  escape  it  offered  into 
fresh  atmosphere.  She  did  not  realize 
her  need  in  this  respect,  perhaps,  until 
she  had  heard  a  French  comedian  read 
aloud  for  Mrs.  Emory's  friends,  over  a 
cup  of  tea  at  five  o'clock,  Daudet's 
exquisite  story  of  "  La  Chevre  de 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  i?7 


M.  Seguin,"  in  the  "  Lettres  de  mon 
Moulin."  She,  like  poor  little  Blan- 
quette,  was  fed  and  sheltered  in  a  pad 
dock  where  grass  grew  green  and 
brightest  waters  ran.  But  away  over 
yonder,  somewhere  on  the  indefinite 
blue,  were  mountains,  and  on  the 
mountain-tops  was  freedom — no  matter 
what  M.  Seguin  said,  it  was  freedom 
Blanquette  craved. 

More  than  a  year  had  elapsed  since 
the  incidents  described  as  passing  at 
Tupelo,  and  in  that  time  much  had 
taken  place.  The  success  of  the  care 
fully  adjusted  debut  of  Miss  Curtis 
into  New  York  society  had  been  imme 
diate.  There  were  now  few  desirable 
awnings  under  which  Mrs.  Floyd- 
Curtis  might  not  walk.  From  the 
luxurious  morning-room  where  that 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


lady  gave  daily  audience  to  her  secre 
tary  she  had  even  the  satisfaction  of 
dictating  who  should  walk  under  her 
awning  and  enter  within  the  penetralia 
of  her  choicer  parties.  "  This  business 
of  pleasing  all  one's  friends,"  she 
remarked  to  the  secretary,  a  young 
person  liberally  paid  to  address  envel 
opes  and  to  say  oh  !  and  ah !  "is  really 
becoming  a  problem  in  this  town." 

She  resolved  upon  the  advanced 
move  of  dividing  her  hospitality  as  fol 
lows  :  First,  a  "  tea  at  four  o'clock," 
for  all  the  world,  including  the  family 
clergyman  and  lawyer,  friends  of  by 
gone  days,  discarded  stepping-stones, 
cousins  who  live  in  Harlem,  and  dis 
tinguished  old  residents  of  the  Second 
Avenue  who  have  delicate  throats  and 
are  rarely  seen  out  after  dark.  Next, 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  179 


an  evening  party,  with  early  hours, 
classical  music,  plenty  of  terrapin,  and 
the  phonograph. 

"This  will  cover  all  the  'heavies' 
who  don't  dance,"  she  observed  to  little 
Miss  Perkins.  "  They  wouldn't  be 
satisfied  with  an  afternoon  affair  ;  they 
expect  champagne,  you  know.  Bank 
presidents  and  big  railroad  men  and 
that  kind  of  thing  hate  tea." 

"  So  true,"  murmured  little  Miss 
Perkins,  who  lived  in  a  flat  on  the 
Seventh  Avenue  and  helped  to  support 
her  mother  by  the  present  occupation, 
for  which  she  had  renounced  that  of 
reader  to  invalids. 

To  herd  in  the  rest  of  Mrs.  Curtis's 
acquaintance  there  was  to  be,  thirdly, 
a  "  small  and  early  ";  in  reality  a  large 
and  late  cotillon.  To  this  she  pur- 


l8o  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


posed  bidding  only  the  list  of  names 
published  so  often  in  the  newspapers 
that  a  devout  reader  of  society  columns 
ought  to  be  able  to  recite  them  back 
wards,  as  the  devil  says  his  prayers. 
For  it  were  to  be  reserved  the  jungle 
of  hot-house  greenery  upon  the  stairs, 
the  roses  scattered  as  if  by  the  hand  of 
June,  the  favors  brought  from  Paris, 
two  orchestras,  a  banquet  on  golden 
dishes,  and  the  Only — the  Ineffable — to 
lead  the  german.  For  the  renown  of 
this  affair  she  was  willing  to  suffer  the 
penalty  of  having  all  the  skeletons  in 
her  family  closet  dragged  before  the 
public  by  the  press  and  by  old  friends 
omitted  from  her  list,  as  well  as  dis 
cussed  behind  fans  in  every  corner  of 
her  resplendent  rooms  by  the  partakers 
of  her  bounty. 


T1U-:  ANGLOMANIACS.  I  Si 


Add  to  such  undertakings  the  din 
ners  that  fashion  ordains  to  be  recur 
rent  at  short  intervals  throughout  the 
season  ;  dinners  to  insure  the  success 
of  which  required  such  nicety  of  fore 
thought,  such  tact,  such  diplomatic 
planning!  It  really  makes  one  ache  in 
sympathy  with  the  cares  of  a  lady  of 
Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis's  high  place. 

"  There,  that's  settled,  thank  good 
ness  !  "  she  would  exclaim  when  laying 
down  a  completed  list.  "  And  if  any 
body  doesn't  like  it,  let  them  lump  it,  I 
say.  But  when  Lent  comes,  if  there 
are  any  other  women  to  be  'done,'  I'll 
just  give  a  'consolation'  lunch,  and 
have  it  over." 

Following  these  tactics,  and  by  the 
powerful  aid  of  her  now  bosom  friend, 
Mrs.  Bertie  Clay,  there  were  few  ob- 


1 82  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

stacles  to  the  successful  achievement  of 
her  aim.  I  have  no  sort  of  doubt, 
though,  that  the  fortnight's  visit  from 
the  Countess  of  Melrose  before  going 
to  the  West  convinced  New  Yorkers  of 
Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis's  real  merit.  If 
there  had  been  any  lingering  hesitancy 
on  this  question,  the  arrival  of  the 
young  earl,  and  the  business-like  way 
in  which  he  proceeded  to  attach  him 
self  to  the  Floyd-Curtis  train,  would 
have  removed  it.  He  was  seen  with 
them  everywhere,  even  walking  with 
Lily  on  the  shady  side  of  the  Avenue 
before  twelve  o'clock  meridian — and 
we  all  know  what  that  means  when  the 
attendant  third  is  a  golden  collie  dog. 

So  much  disappointment  to  demo 
cratic  eyes  has  resulted  from  the  ex 
ternal  appearance  of  noble  Englishmen 


THE  ANGLOMAXIACS.  183 

upon  their  travels  in  the  States,  that 
that  of  Lord  Melrose  might  have  been 
regarded  as  a  triumphant  vindication 
of  his  order.  He  was  manly,  vigorous, 
and  distinguished  ;  nor  did  he  wear  at 
entertainments  a  shabby  suit  of  mus 
tard  colored  tweeds.  He  bore  himself 
with  sufficient  consideration  toward 
his  fellow-beings  of  less  exalted  rank, 
showed  no  tendency  to  sprawl  or  yawn 
at  dinner  parties,  and  carried  an  um 
brella  that  might  have  been  folded  by 
Monty  Brabazon.  He  was  not  bril 
liant.  Conversation  with  him,  after 
passing  the  middle  ground  of  sport  and 
horses,  was  apt  to  languish.  He  was  a 
lukewarm  politician,  a  poor  historian 
of  England's  glorious  past,  and  was 
puzzled,  not  to  say  bored,  by  the  chal 
lenge  of  enthusiastic  Americans  about 


1 84  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


the  relations  of  his  own  family  to 
public  matters  as  written  in  the  books. 
It  is  one  of  the  keenest  of  backsets  to 
a  republican  aglow  with  interest  in  the 
picturesque  side  of  an  exalted  ancestry 
to  find  how  cheap  its  modern  repre 
sentatives  account  their  centuries  of 
tradition.  To  stir  their  souls  into 
responsiveness  requires  no  draft  upon 
history  more  remote  than  the  tour  in 
the  States  and  the  dollars  thus  ac 
quired  by  some  "  Polly"  or  "Violet" 
of  the  London  music-halls.  To  share 
in  these  tastes,  and  in  many  others 
which  are  the  outgrowth  of  the  age  we 
live  in,  Lord  Melrose  found  many  sym 
pathizers  in  New  York.  He  was  a 
delight  to  that  crop  of  golden  youths 
who  may  be  seen  any  afternoon  in  the 
Fifth  Avenue,  with  trousers  turned  up, 


THE  ANGI.OMAXTACS.  185 


well-fitted  bocly-coats  \vith  large  but 
tonholes  of  white  flowers,  and  high 
hats,  striding  along  as  if  sprinting  for 
a  prize,  and  swinging  their  sticks  with 
diligence — enough  like  the  original 
article  to  be  scarcely  distinguishable 
from  it  at  close  approach.  All  of  his 
hours  except  those  devoted  to  Miss 
Lily  Curtis  were  claimed  by  rapturous 
admirers.  He  was  barely  allowed  to 
sleep  at  his  hotel. 

It  was  a  foregone  conclusion  that 
Lily  would  end  her  first  season  by  an 
nouncing  her  engagement  to  the  earl. 
The  old  ladies  in  the  club  windows 
and  the  old  ladies  at  the  tea-parties 
had  promptly  settled  this.  The  whole 
affair  was  regarded  as  an  uncommon 
windfall  of  those  Floyd-Curtises.  The 
idea  of  the  family  making  objections 


I §6  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


on  the  score  of  old  scandals,  with 
which  London  had  now  done,  was  not 
even  advanced.  Nobody  with  eyes  in 
his  head  could  see  anything  but  appro 
priateness  in  the  success  which  was  a 
"walk-over"  for  Melrose.  Lily's  beau 
ty,  Lily's  fortune,  his  title,  his  pres 
ent  condition  of  moral  whitewash — a 
perfect  balance  ;  so  much  better  than 
those  things  are  in  general.  And 
then,  that  his  mother  should  have 
succumbed  with  such  complacence ! 
That  she  had  gone  home  to  rub  up  the 
family  jewels  and  to  prepare  to  present 
her  Americaa  daughter-in-law  in  Lon 
don  !  Lily  would  have  three  country 
houses  and  one  in  town.  Some  re 
porter  had  been  sent  to  visit  the  best 
of  these  future  dwellings,  and  had 
cabled  a  description  of  its  glories  to 


THE  AXCLOMAXI.ICX.  187 


New  York.  How  many  of  the  girls 
who  read  that  glowing  article  at  break 
fast  but  would  have  given  their  heads 
for  Lily's  luck ! 

The  only  obstacle  to  Lily's  luck 
was — Lily  !  She  liked  Lord  Melrose, 
her  brain  was  a  little  touched  by  the 
excitement  of  the  situation,  and  when 
he  duly  asked  her  to  be  his  wife  and 
the  owner  of  the  four  houses  her 
money  was  to  put  into  habitable  shape, 
she  was  very  near  to  saying  "  yes." 

What  she  said  did  not  transpire. 
Guessers  had  it  that  Melrose  had 
flunked  on  coming  to  the  point,  and 
when  he  sailed  away  had  left  the 
Floyd-Curtises  as  inconsolable  as  Ca 
lypso  at  the  departure  of  Ulysses. 
Soon  after,  it  appeared  that  Mrs. 
Floyd-Curtis  had  taken  a  house  in 


1 88  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

London  for  the  season,  and  that  she 
and  her  daughter  were  to  go  over  in 
April  with  Mrs.  Bertie  Clay,  which 
threw  conjectures  again  into  confusion. 
With  this  move  began  Mrs.  Clay's 
first  visible  requital  for  services  ren 
dered  the  Floyd-Curtis  family.  Lon 
don  was  the  Mecca  of  her  hopes. 
Havingf  tasted  London,  all  else  was 

o 

dust  and  ashes.  Her  native  city  ap 
peared  a  place  of  crudities,  of  uncer 
tain  values,  of  wearisome  unrest,  by 
comparison.  As  guest  she  would  be 
virtually  mistress  of  the  Floyd-Curtis 
mansion  in  Mayfair.  The  idea  pre 
sented  possibilities  that  had  for  practi 
cal  purposes  no  boundary.  She  was 
quite  prepared  to  join  with  the  aristo 
crats  who  might  accept  their  hospital 
ities  in  making  sport,  afterwards,  of 


THE  ANGLO.MAXIACS.  189 

"  these  innocent  Americans  who  come 
over  here  to  entertain."  Contrasted 
with  last  year,  her  condition  was  im 
mensely  altered  for  the  better.  When 
Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis  first  met  her  the 
artless  Barbara  had  been,  figuratively 
speaking,  holding  her  little  hand  over 
the  leak  in  the  bottom  of  her  boat. 
And  now — well,  no  one  could  say  that 
Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis  did  not  pay  well 
for  what  she  got. 

At  the  close  of  the  three  months 
in  London,  during  which  Lord  Mel- 
rose  had  been  reported  to  be  as  much 
with  the  Curtis  family  as  before,  the 
beauty  and  her  train  returned  to 
America,  giving  Newport,  Bar  Harbor, 
and  Lenox,  successive  glimpses  at  her 
charms  and  toilets,  and  settling  down 
for  a  second  winter  in  New  York, 


19°  THE  ANGLOMANIA  CS. 

repeating  the  routine  of  the  first. 
Early  in  December  the  earl  was 
again  seen  at  the  clubs  and  in  atten 
dance  on  Miss  Floyd-Curtis.  Still,  no 
congratulations  had  been  asked.  What 
meant  this  mystery  ? 

Not  to  commit  the  cruelty  of  keep 
ing  a  reader  in  suspense,  I  may 
say  that  Lily  had  put  her  suitor 
upon  a  year's  probation,  and  that  the 
earl,  being  supplied  with  plenty  of 
incidental  diversions,  and  in  no  hurry 
to  change  his  estate,  had  submitted 
in  a  matter-of-fact  fashion  which  left 
her  mind  at  ease.  Melrose  had  been 
shooting  at  grizzlies  in  the  West,  and 
after  a  cruise  in  a  friend's  yacht 
among  the  Bahamas  was  fishing  for 
tarpon  in  Florida,  whence  it  was  set 
tled  he  should  return  to  New  York 


THE  ANGLO.MAXIACS.  191 

to  receive  his  fair  one's  ultimatum. 
Having  no  sort  of  doubt  of  the  re 
sult,  he  had  made  up  his  mind  that 
Lent  would  be  as  good  a  time  as 
any  to  enter  into  pre-matrimonial 
bonds. 

No  sooner  had  Lily  come  into  her 
friend's  drawing-room  than  Mrs.  Emory 
observed  upon  her  face  a  look  of 
more  than  usual  animation.  For  at 
this  epoch  of  a  beauty's  career  it  is 
common  to  see  the  consciousness  of 
perpetual  observation  from  the  public 
harden  the  mobility  of  youthful  lines 
and  chill  the  manner  into  mere  lan 
guid  receptiveness  of  tribute.  Lily 
was  no  longer  the  tricksome  wood- 
nymph  of  our  earlier  chapters,  but  a 
breathing  picture  of  conventionalized 
young  womanhood — a  type  of  the  per- 


192  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

fected  artificiality  of  a  society  that  has 
no  parallel  in  forcing  growths. 

To-night  her  eyes  deepened  to  vel 
vet  softness,  her  cheek  regained  its 
vivid  bloom.  The  children,  whom  she 
picked  up  alternately,  caressing  them 
with  entire  indifference  to  the  rare 
roses  at  her  breast,  hugged  her  with 
strangling  arms.  To  Hal  and  Gladys 
she  was  the  fairy  princess  of  every 
nursery  tale. 

"  See,  you  have  brought  us  a  waft 
of  the  sweet  South,"  said  Mrs.  Emory 
as  her  guests,  including,  with  Lily, 
but  a  few  men  of  their  nearest 
friends,  sat  down  to  table.  She 
pointed  to  a  silver  dish  in  the  center, 
containing  oranges,  bedded  in  gray 
moss,  and  half  covered  with  sprays 
of  yellow  jasmine  and  fresh  orange 


THE  A. \-GLOM.-I. v/ ACS.  193 


blossoms.  "  What  luxury  to  breathe 
it  in  such  weather,  with  the  hail  dash 
ing  against  our  window-panes !  You 
were  very  generous  to  part  with  these." 

"  They  were  sent  by — they  came 
to  me  from  Florida  to-day,"  the  girl 
said,  blushing  rather  uncomfortably. 
"  I  remembered  your  fancy  for  orange 
blossoms,  in  which  I  do  not  share." 

"  Isn't  that  heresy  in  a  young 
lady  ? "  began  her  host,  and  was 
checked  by  a  message  by  matrimonial 
telegraph  across  the  table.  Grace, 
who  had  received  the  box  in  its  ex 
press  wrappings,  much  as  it  had  first 
come  to  Lily,  had  a  surmise  of  her 
own  upon  the  subject  of  the  donor. 

"  There's  a  twin  sister  of  the  orange 
blossom  we  never  see  here,"  Lily's 
neighbor  on  the  right  remarked.  "It 


194  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

is  too  fragile  to  bear  transportation. 
It  is  like  the  flower  of  a  dream.  I 
mean  the  Cherokee  rose.  I  shall 
never  forget  my  first  impression  of 
its  radiance,  under  a  blazing  blue 
sky  of  March  in  an  orange  grove 
near  Enterprise.  Above  me  was  a 
huge  spherical  mass  of  polished  foli 
age  at  the  summit  of  a  high,  smooth 
trunk,  and  on  one  side  of  it  oranges 
and  blossoms,  gold  and  cream-white ; 
on  the  other,  a  bridal  veil,  a  cascade 
of  Cherokee  roses,  cream-white  and 
gold — wide-open,  flaring  petals  of  ex 
quisite  grain  and  tint,  and  the  hearts 
pure  gold  !  " 

"  Dante  Rossetti  would  have  made 
a  'picture  of  it  first,  and  written  a 
poem  about  it  after,"  Mrs.  Emory 
said.  "  There  is  so  much  in  Florida 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  1 95 

to  be  yet  sung  and  painted.  I  have 
been  always  waiting  for  inspiration 
to  deal  with  the  subject  of  the 
Ocklawaha  River.  That  interminable, 
sinuous,  green  water-way  beneath  the 
cypresses ;  all  around,  far  as  the  eye 
can  penetrate  those  lonely  woods,  a 
swamp  filled  with  noisome  and  pes 
tilential  creatures.  Above,  particu 
larly  at  night,  when  the  pine-knots  are 
lighted  in  the  braziers  of  the  boat, 
the  wondrous  tracery  of  boughs  and 
parasitic  vines  and  nesting  birds 
against  the  sky ;  the  cry  of  those 
unearthly  loons ;  the  alligators  and 
moccasin  snakes  in  loving  conclave 
on  every  projecting  log  along  the 
bank  at  either  side  ;  the  songs  of  the 
negro  waiters  from  the  rear  deck 
after  nightfall ;  above  all,  the  sense 


I96  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

one  has,  when  on  this  long  day's 
voyage,  and  before  emerging  into 
the  broad  sweep  of  the  St.  John's 
River,  that  it  will  never,  never  end. 
It  was  to  me  like  a  page  from  the 
'Inferno.'" 

"  You  should  set  it  to  music," 
mischievously  suggested  her  husband. 
"  And,  with  a  good  deal  left  to  the 
imagination  of  the  audience,  it  might 
be  a  success.  You  will  of  course  use 
brass  abundantly  for  weird  effects. 
I  can  imagine  the  flop  of  the  alli 
gators,  but  I  confess  it  floors  me  to 
think  how  you'll  bring  in  the  moc 
casins.  However,  in  your  school 
these  little  difficulties  do  not  count 
for  much." 

"  I  wont  even  rebuke  you,  after  that 
glorious  performance  of  '  Tristan  and 


77fE  AWGLOM.-l.Y/ACS. 


Isolde  'last  night,"  answered  his  wife 
placidly.  "  Our  '  school  '  held  an  im 
mense  audience  spellbound,  even  the 
worst  of  the  talking-  boxes.  At  the 
end  of  the  first  and  second  acts  the 
singers  and  the  conductor  were  recalled 
time  after  time  with  tumultuous  ap 
plause.  Just  wait  till  you  read  the 
notices,  and  perhaps  you'll  credit  me." 

"  I  will  read  them,"  answered  Fred 
heroically.  "  I  will  read  anything  in 
print,  except  descriptions  of  scenery 
and  stories  in  dialect.  But  don't  ask 
me  to  sit  out  one  of  your  music  dramas. 
Life  is  too  short  for  it,  unless  per 
chance  the  directors  are  merciful  and 
work  in  a  ballet." 

Lily  felt  thankful  that  the  talk,  set 
afloat  by  her  unlucky  orange  blossoms, 
had  drifted  away  from  Florida.  Since 


198  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

the  night  before,  when  at  the  opera  a 
mere  accidental  turning  of  the  head 
had  brought  to  her  the  unexpected 
sight  of  the  man  she  so  obstinately 
preferred  to  other  men,  her  mind  had 
been  soaring  on  golden  pinions  into  a 
region  of  hope  renewed.  What  exactly 
was  to  come — how  it  was  to  come — she 
dared  not  formulate  into  probabilities. 
He  had  been  gazing  at  her,  how  long 
she  knew  not,  when  their  eyes  had  met, 
and  his  look  had  conveyed  every  assur 
ance  a  woman  could  exact.  In  that 
glamour  and  glitter  of  latter-day  mag 
nificence  their  two  souls  had  touched 
and  blended  as  naturally  and  simply 
as  if  alone  in  the  first  trysting-place  for 
lovers  upon  earth.  All  clay  she  had 
moved  about,  listening,  expecting 
something  that  had.  not  come.  But  it 


Till-.   AXC.I.OMAXIACS. 


would,  it  would  !  She  had  faith  in  him, 
he  had  not  changed  any  more  than 
she  ;  her  long  ordeal  was  over ;  to 
gether  they  might  move  mountains 
from  their  path. 

So,  with  answering  gayety,  she  threw 
herself  into  the  pleasure  of  the  passing 
hour.  Talk  ranged  from  art  to  litera 
ture,  touched  lightly  upon  philosophy, 
and  "  brushed  with  extremest  flounce 
the  circle  of  the  sciences."  Grace  and 
Lily,  often  more  content  to  listen,  con 
tributed  intermittently  to  the  conversa 
tion,  at  no  time  strained  to  keep  up 
to  a  conventional  standard.  Philip 
Strange,  the  architect,  whom  they  ac 
cused  of  being  the  pessimist  of  Emory's 
clique,  had,  at  the  conclusion  of  one  of 
his  characteristic  jeremiads  about  the 
decadence  of  society  in  the  hands  of 


200  TIiE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


plutocrats,  drawn  a  glowing  picture  of 
a  socialist  riot  in  the  Fifth  Avenue  of 
the  future,  with  the  mob  from  the 
slums  marching  through  picture-gal 
leries  and  feeding  on  truffles  from  the 
tables  of  the  great. 

"  After  that,"  cried  Grace,  "  I  shall 
be  afraid  to  offer  you  one  of  my  ris 
soles.  I  am  guiltily  conscious  that 
they  contain  truffles  chopped  by  my 
own  hands.  But  it  was  a  very  little 
box,  Mr.  Strange  ;  one  of  the  half-size 
provided  for  the  deserving  poor.  I 
cribbed  the  idea  of  these  from  a  swell 
luncheon  the  other  day  ;  and,  between 
us.,  Cookey  and  I  evolved  the  present 
specimens." 

"  Don't  be  alarmed,  Strange,"  re 
marked  Emory,  with  a  bit  upon  his 
fork.  "  See,  I  will  lead  the  way. 


THE  ANGI.OMAXIACS.  201 

I've  been  the  subject  of  so  many  ex 
periments  in  cookery  I've  become  quite 
brave  and  reckless." 

"  All  the  same,  I  tell  you,"  pursued 
Strange,  devouring-  his  rissole  in  three 
mouthfuls,  "  what  I  say  is  true.  The 
imbecility  of  marking  class  lines  and 
expecting  people  to  live  within  them  in 
a  place  like  this  is  patent.  Those  that 
have  got  the  upper  hand  are  mere 
blind  beetles;  they  fancy  they  can 
keep  up  this  parade  of  exclusiveness, 
this  tremendous  display  of  luxury  with 
in  two  or  three  avenues  of  a  huge,  rest 
less,  craving,  increasing,  plotting  mass 
of  tenement-house  people  who  sit  in 
their  shirt-sleeves  after  working  hours 
and  read  in  the  penny  papers  about 
whole  houses  decorated  with  orchids  of 
fabulous  price,  and  a  fortune  expended 


THE  A  NGL  OMA  NIA  CS. 


on  some  trumpery  little  jug.  Some 
day  they  will  tire  of  such  reading, 
and  will  swarm  out  of  their  human 
honey-combs  --  these  workers  who 
are  not  content  to  live  on  the 
smells  from  a  rich  man's  saucepan — 
and  then— 

"  Please  stop  there,"  said  his  hostess. 
"  Keep  the  rest  of  it  for  the  clen  up 
stairs.  You  are  putting  us  in  the  same 
frame  of  mind  with  the  two  professors 

of University,  who  were  sipping 

their  after-dinner  coffee.  '  After  all, 
Smith,'  said  Professor  Jones,  '  what 
would  life  be  without  coffee  ? '  '  True,' 
said  Smith,  '  but  then  what  is  life  with 
coffee?'" 

"  It  appears  to  me  I  saw  Strange's 
name  in  the  list  of  guests  at  the 
Croesus's  musicale,"  remarked  Carlton. 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  203 

"And  if  I'm  not  mistaken,  he's  to 
build  the  new  palace  at  Newport  for 
that  lucky  dog  Robinson,  who  married 
Miss  Golding,  the  California  million- 
heiress." 

"  This  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire," 
said  Strange  composedly.  "  But  just 
let  me  say  two  words  more,  Mrs. 
Emory.  I  want  to  touch  on  an  aspect 
of  the  social  question  that  concerns 
you  and  me  and  the  other  people  rep 
resenting  moderate  means  and — not  to 
put  too  fine  a  point  upon  it — liberal 
culture  in  New  York.  If  we  lived  in 
London,  we'd  just  sit  still  and  eat  and 
drink  among  ourselves,  with  indifferent 
acquiescence  to  the  limit  prescribed 
by  destiny.  But  here — perish  the 
thought ! — we  are  as  good  and  as 
worthy  to  be  exalted  as  any  Van  Shu- 


204  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


ter  that  ever  built  himself  a  lordly 
pleasure  house— 

"  Or  paid  Strange  to  build  it  for 
him,"  put  in  Carlton. 

"  We  associate  ourselves  with  the 
diversions  of  such  people,  and  come 
home  inclined  to  think  all  minor  forms 
of  entertainment  impossible.  We  are 
paralyzed  by  their  facility  of  accom 
plishing  results  for  which  we  strain. 
Except  in  a  few  houses — I  bow  to  a 
shining  example,  Mrs.  Emory — the  old, 
easy  interchange  of  hospitalities  has 
vanished.  We  hire  men  but  a  little 
advanced  beyond  Thackeray's  '  green 
grocers  in  disguise'  to  impersonate  the 
retainers  our  millionaires  display  to 
line  their  halls  and  stairways.  We 
dare  not  set  one  wine-glass  less  at 
table  than  we  have  seen  on  theirs.  We 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  205 

offer  to  our  guests  entrees  of  the  same 
ridiculous  elaboration— 

"  Thanks  for  my  poor  rissoles,"  said 
Grace. 

"  They  are  delicious,  and  I  am  long 
ing  for  another,"  answered  Strange. 
His  need  was  at  once  supplied,  with  a 
sympathetic  grin,  by  the  Misfit,  who  had 
not  yet  attained  the  art  of  convention 
alizing,  while  on  duty,  her  broad  coun 
tenance  to  a  proper  lack  of  interest  in 
the  company's  affairs.  "  Well,  you  all 
know  what  I  mean.  Everybody  must 
see  it.  It 's  the  old  fable  of  the  earthen 
pot  and  the  iron  pot  drifting  down  the 
stream  together." 

"  I  know,"  said  Grace.  "  Half  the 
pleasant  homes  of  my  acquaintance 
are  spoiled  by  that  very  thing.  The 
hostess  breaking  her  heart  over  a  mis- 


206  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

taken  sauce,  or  wondering  if  she  can 
get  the  cost  of  this  week's  florist's  bill 
out  of  next  week's  market  money, 
while  the  guests  sit  around  the  table 
trying  to  repress  the  natural  exuber 
ance  of  their  spirits,  because  the  Van 
Shuter  dinners  are  known  to  be  so 
deadly  dull." 

"  My  complaint  is  against  the  girls," 
said  Emory.  "  It's  bad  enough  to  see 
the  women  aiming  for  the  '  repose 
which  stamps  the  caste  of  Vere  de 
Vere,'  but  when  it  comes  to  the  nice, 
frank,  outspoken  girls  one  knew  in 
their  salad  days  in  the  families  of  one's 
friends  settling  down  into  wax  figures 
fit  for  the  Eden  Musee— 

"  You  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
girls,"  said  his  wife.  "  Keep  in  your 
proper  place,  and  your  sensitive  spirit 


THE  ANGLO&fANIACS,  207 

will  not  receive  such  shocks.  Lily, 
dear,  you  will  see  that  I  live  in  a 
nest  of  image-breakers.  They  respect 
no  convenances,  no  authorities.  They 
despise  'society.'  But  I've  always  ob 
served  that  they  accept  all  their  invi 
tations." 

"  Me  too  !"  piped  up  Dick  Huntley, 
who  lived  in  the  Benedick,  with  his 
violoncello  and  a  pair  of  dachshunds. 
"  I'm  waiting  to  put  in  my  little  oar. 
The  question  is,  you  know,  as  things 
are  going  on  now,  how  are  any  of  us 
fellows  ever  going  to  marry  ?" 

"  Don't,"  said  Strange  lugubriously. 

"  I'm  not,"  answered  Dicky — "  I'm 
thirty  years  old,  and  I've  got  all  I  can 
do  to  keep  my  rooms  and  pay  my 
washerwoman — unless  I  ask  some  girl 
to  help  me  out  with  the  washerwoman, 


208  THE  A^TGLOMANIACS. 


and  buy  her  own  beefsteaks  and  frills 
and  things." 

"  Take    her    to    Hoboken,"    advised 

Carlton.      "  Lodgings    are    cheap    and 

salubrious    in    that     sequestered    spot, 

tripe  is  said  to  be  wholesome  diet,  and 

'ferry-boats  are  frequent  to  New  York." 

"  Don't  be  deluded,"  said  Grace. 
"  That  suburban  sort  of  bliss  wont 
suit  any  girl  trained  as  ours  are  now. 
'  All  for  love,  or  the  world  well  lost,' 
is  out  of  vogue.  Take  her  away  to 
the  backwoods,  or  else  leave  her  in 
New  York.  I  often  lie  awake  at  night 
thinking  how  poor  Hal  will  manage. 
Gladys,  now,  I  shall  make  it  my  busi 
ness  to  bring  up  to  be  independent  of 
any  need  to  marry.  She  shall  learn 
stenography— 

A  burst  of  laughter  interrupted  her. 


THE  ANGLOMAM  209 


"  Why  not  ?  '  I  am  quite  in  earnest," 
she  went  on.  "  Oil  !  I  feel  so  sorry 
for  the  multitude  of  girls  in  our  class 
\vho  have  nothing  to  do  with  their  lives 
after  twenty-five.  They  flutter  their 
brief  hour  in  society,  and  if  they  fail  to 
marry  as  they  or  their  friends  expect, 
they're  so  deplorably  dc  trap.  Some 
of  them  hold  on  like  grim  death  to 
rosebud  privileges.  The  clever  ones 
know  when  to  fall  back  on  dinners  and 
charities,  or  collecting  missals,  or  musi 
cal  instruments,  or  patronizing  dog 
shows  and  afternoon  teas.  Those  who 
have  country  places  sometimes  go  in 
for  amateur  farming,  and  sell  eggs  and 
butter  stamped  with  the  family  crest. 
But  it's  all  fitful  and  vexatious  to  the 
spirit.  And  when  there's  no  money  it's 
simply  dreadful.  Everybody  knows 


210  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

there  are  too  many  women  in  the 
world.  The  idea  of  educating  them  to 
believe  that  marry  they  must,  or  be 
laid  upon  the  shelf,  and  that  marry 
they  can't  unless  every  detail's  in  keep 
ing  with  modern  style  !  It's  very  well 
for  you  men  to  gibe,  but  just  wait  till 
you  come  to  try  it  for  yourselves." 

"This  from  you,  Mrs.  Emory!" 
said  Carlton.  "  You,  who  are  our  last 
hope  and  stronghold  of  belief  in  mar 
riage  for  love's  sake.  If  you  fail  us, 
Dicky  and  I  will  die  unwed.  We  will 
trust  no  maiden  to  lay  her  fairy  hand 
in  ours,  and  go  to  the  confines  of  the 
earth  in  following  our  fortunes — unless, 
indeed,  it  be  one  of  the  comfortable, 
chicken-raising  spinsters  who  is  weary 
of  her  single  blessedness.  Miss  Floyd- 
Curtis,  now,  hasn't  given  her  testi- 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  21 1 

mony.  Perhaps  she  may  dispel  the 
gloom  that  is  gathering  on  our  spirits." 

"  I  have  no  idea  of  betraying  the 
secrets  of  my  craft,"  Lily  said.  While 
they  chatted,  her  fancy  had  played 
with  one  theme  as  a  fountain  holds  up 
a  ball  in  its  crystal  column.  "  Besides, 
you  have  taken  the  ground  from  be 
neath  my  feet.  But  I  can't  help 
thinking  there  are  a  few  true  women 
left." 

"  Do  you  mean  some  who'd  be  will 
ing  to  buy  their  bonnets  as  we  do  our 
hats,  when  the  other  one  wears  out  ?  " 
asked  Dick  Huntley  eagerly.  "  Be 
cause,  by  Jove  !  I  saw  a  milliner's  bill 
once,  and  I  saw  the  bonnet,  and  I  give 
you  my  word,  it  frightened  me,  their 
relative  size  was  so  wildly  dispropor- 
tioned  ;  and  I  stayed  a  bachelor." 


212  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

"  By  the  way,"  said  Carlton,  when 
the  game  was  served,  "  I  dined  at  the 
Maryland  Club  last  week,  and  we'd  the 
breast  of  a  canvasback  duck  apiece, 
perfectly  cooked  and  served, — a  lesson 
to  our  New  York  caterers, —  with  a 
bottle  of  old  Madeira  mellowed  in  the 
garret  of  a  Baltimore  gourmet.  There 
were  six  men  only,  and  we  ate  the 
duck  course  in  solemn  silence,  all  ex 
cept  the  man  the  dinner  was  given  to, 
an  Englishman,  who  did  his  best  to  be 
polite,  but  couldn't  finish  his.  He  was 
a  fellow  you  know  and  like,  Emory— 
Jencks  of  Illyria  University." 

"  He  told  me  of  his  failure  to  meet 
expectations,"  said  Emory.  "  That's 
likely  to  be  the  only  one  set  down 
against  his  name.  Tell  me,  Carlton, — 
I  haven't  had  time  to  read  it, — about 


/•///•;  A  NGL  O.lf.  I  .VIA  CS. 


Jencks's  book.  Does  it  promise  well  ?" 
"  Rather  ! "  said  the  journalist,  em 
phatically.  "  Why,  it's  immense.  We 
gave  it  a  two-column  review  in  our 
Sunday  issue  a  fortnight  ago.  That 
was  the  first  of  any  length.  The 
others  are  all  coming  along  with 
notices,  and  there's  not  one  but  what 
praises  it,  as  he  deserves.  You  know 
that  kind  of  specialist  work  wakes  up 
the  public  slowly.  He's  a  little  dog 
matic,  perhaps,  but  as  clear  and  sound 
as  a  bell,  and  the  style  is  masterly. 
Of  course,  though,  you  can't  expect 
for  it  a  popular  craze." 

"  Jencks  doesn't  care  a  rajp  for  popu 
larity,"  Emory  replied.  "  I'd  a  talk 
with  him  this  afternoon  at  Brett's,  his 
publisher's,  and  begged  him  to  come 
home  to  dinner  with  me,  but— 


214  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

"  Mr.  Jencks  in  town  !  Ernest 
Jencks?"  queried  Mrs.  Emory,  in  stac 
cato.  "  Why,  I  had  no  idea— 

"  He  came  over  from  Baltimore  for 
a  day  or  two  only,  to  see  Brett  about 
his  book,  and  would  have  been  glad 
to  look  in  on  us  but  that  his  train  for 
the  West  leaves  at  nine  o'clock,"  Fred 
went  on,  talking  down  his  wife,  as  the 
best  of  husbands  will. 

"  Nine  o'clock !  It  is  almost  that 
now,"  cried  Grace.  "  Oh,  what  a  pity  ! 
There's  nobody  I'd  rather  have  seen 
than  Ernest  Jencks." 

"  I  back  that  man  for  a  sure  suc 
cess,"  said  Carlton.  "  He's  made  his 
mark  already  at  Illyria,  but  I  doubt  if 
they  hold  on  to  him.  Ten  years  hence 
he  will  belong  to  our  country  ;  no 
narrower  limit  will  contain  him.  I 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  215 


only  wish  his  Alma  Mater  would  send 
us  out  a  few  more  of  his  sort." 

"  There  are  none  to  spare,"  said 
Emory.  "Young  England  needs  them 
as  much  as  young  America.  Putting 
his  brains  out  of  the  question,  Jencks 
is  a  pure  type  of  Eroude's  Britons, 
'a  sturdy,  high-hearted  race,  sound 
in  body,  and  fierce  in  spirit.'  One 
thing  may  be  depended  on.  What 
ever  he  sets  out  to  do,  it  will  be 
done." 

"  May  I  give  you  the  salted  almonds  ? 
Have  you  met  this  Professor  Jencks  ?" 
asked  the  young  man  at  Lily's  right. 

"  Yes,"  the  girl  said  faintly,  as  the 
clock  rang  out  nine  cruel  silver  strokes. 

And,  turning  his  stubborn  back  upon 
New  York,  the  professor  was  at  that 


216  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


moment  punishing  himstlf  for  a  pass 
ing  indulgence  of  the  eye,  by  what 
Arnold  of  Rugby  calls  "the  silent 
pleasure  so  dear  to  every  Englishman, 
of  enduring,  resisting,  and  struggling 
with  something,  and  not  giving  way." 


VI. 

Ox  the  clay  following-  the  Emorys' 
little  dinner  Lily,  in  her  plainest  walk 
ing  dress,  came  into  her  mother's 
morning-room.  This  apartment,  so 
recently  decorated  as  to  be  yet  fra 
grant  with  shellac,  was  designed  to 
repeat  the  boudoir  of  a  French  king's 
favorite,  with  walls  of  sea-green  tint 
and  Vernis  Martin  polish,  and  panels 
with  nymphs  disporting  under  gilded 
wreaths.  Amid  the  studied  confusion 
of  its  chairs,  screens,  tables,  new  buhl 
and  old  brocade,  Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis 
did  not  supply  the  completing  note  of 
harmony.  Luxurious  ease  '  was  not 

written   upon   her  countenance.       She 
217 


218  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


was  in  truth  under  the  disadvantage  of 
what,  in  her  bourgeois  days,  was  called 
being  "  in  a  stew."  Her  face  was 
flushed,  her  temper  uncertain.  She 
had  dismissed  her  secretary,  and  now 
sat  before  a  litter  of  notes  and  cards 
and  letters.  Among  the  latter  was  a 
semi-official  communication,  detailing 
certain  incidents  of  her  son's  career 
at  Eton  not  inspiriting  to  a  parent. 
There  was  also  a  "  statement "  from 
her  firm  of  "artistic  decorators,"  exas- 
peratingly  in  excess  of  the  sum  agreed 
upon  in  suavest  oral  intercourse — one 
of  those  bills  that  blister  before  and 
after  they  are  paid.  The  butler  had 
just  retired,  after  elaborating  the  his 
tory  of  a  feud  between  himself  and  the 
chef  that  threatened  to  depopulate  the 
house  of  servants.  Mrs.  Peter  van 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  219 

Shuter  had  sent  out  cards  for  a  very 
especial  dinner  which  omitted  her  most 
recent  friend.  Last,  not  least,  upon 
the  table,  staring  at  her  with  odious 
legibility  of  print,  lay  a  newspaper  with 
a  paragraph  announcing  the  evident 
collapse  of  the  Floyd-Curtis  scheme  to 
secure  Lord  Melrose  for  the  beauty,  to 
which  were  added  speculations  as  to 
the  genuineness  of  Lily's  bloom,  with  a 
sketch  of  her  maternal  grandfather. 

Altogether,  Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis  was  so 
overcome  as  to  allow  herself  the  whis 
pered  phrase  that  she  was  "clean  beat 
out."  It  was  one  of  those  crises  in 
which  people  owning  private  cars  go 
to  Mexico,  or  Puget  Sound,  or  St. 
Augustine.  Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis,  bound 
to  the  stake  by  the  approaching  re 
turn  of  Lily's  suitor,  could  not  even  in- 


220  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

dulge  herself  in  resorting  to  enlistment 
in  the  noble  army  of  "  N.  P's "  (or 
nervous  prostrates),  who  are  content 
with  Lakewood. 

"Well,  child,  why  aren't  you  in  your 
habit  ?  "  she  asked  sharply.  "  You 
need  exercise.  You  look  pale,  and 
there  are  rings  around  your  eyes. 
Thompson  says  you  send  her  away  at 
night,  and  there's  no  telling  when  you 
go  to  bed.  I  insist  upon  your  riding 
every  day  you  have  the  chance.  Any 
body  with  half  an  eye  can  see  that 
your  looks  are  going  off.  As  if  I 
hadn't  enough  of  troubles  to  my 
share ! " 

Lily  was  indeed  pale,  and  until  her 
mother  had  quite  finished  speaking  she 
stood  listless. 

"  I  was  going  to  beg  for  a  day  off, 


THE  ANGLO.MANIACS.  221 


mamma,"  she  said.  "  A  morning  for 
my  very  own." 

"  Nonsense,  child  !  \Yhat  would 
you  do  with  it  !  Some  eccentric 
scheme  of  Mrs.  Emory's,  no  doubt. 
I'm  not  at  all  certain  about  this 
friendship  with  the  Emorys." 

"  I  think  you  may  feel  easy,  mother," 
Lily  said,  with  a  half  smile.  "  You 
know  the  Van  Shuters  invite  them  to 
dinner  at  least  once  a  year." 

"  Really  ?  Well,  one  should  never 
forget  that  Grace  Emory  was  aChaun- 
cey.  It's  her  husband  you  can't  be 
sure  of,  whether  he  is  ridiculing  you  or 
not.  Lily,  before  you  go,  I'm  feeling 
very  down  to-day — everything  goes 
wrong.  I  know  I  said  I  wouldn't  ask 
you  questions  till  the  time  is  up.  But 
consider,  dear;  he  is  coming  back  '  i 


222  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

Saturday ;  so  much  depends  on  it — 
you  can't  mean  to  fail  me  now." 

The  mother  spoke  with  feverish  ex 
citement.  The  o;irl  reared  her  head 

o 

with  the  pride  of  the  partridge  keep 
ing  watch  over  her  brood.  The  rich 
blood  surged  into  her  cheek  in  a 
fashion  to  give  the  lie  to  the  defamers 
of  her  bloom. 

"  Mamma,  mamma,  you  promised  !" 
"  May  I  come  in  ?  "  And  accus 
tomed  to  the  freedom  of  the  house, 
Mrs.  Bertie  Clay,  without  announce 
ment,  appeared  in  the  space  made  by 
the  footman  in  withdrawing  a  por 
tiere. 

"  How  awfully  lucky  I  am  to  find 
both  of  you  !"  she  said,- gliding  for 
ward  to  bestow  upon  each  of  her 
friends  a  handshake  with  her  elbow  on 


THE  ANGLOMAN1ACS.  223 

the  level  of  the  ear.  "  Lily,  dear,  that 
costume  suits  you  down  to  the  ground. 
How  I  envy  women  who  can  be  cliic 
in  what  a  nursemaid  can  afford  to 
wear." 

The  little  lady  dropped  into  an  easy 
chair,  letting  her  muff  and  a  long  ser 
pentine  boa  of  blue  fox  fall  away  upon 
the  floor. 

"  Really,  dear,  your  room  is  perfect. 
There  can  be  nothing  like  it  in  New 
York." 

"  Reporters  have  been  already  ask 
ing  to  write  it  up  for  the  Sunday 
papers.  Lily— 

"Then  I  may  go,  mamma?"  inter 
rupted  the  young  lady,  who  for  some 
reason  did  not  respond  as  cordially  as 
of  old  to*  the  new-comer's  overtures  of 
friendship.  "  Good-by  ;  I  shall  have 


224  THE  ANGLOMAXIACS. 

Joseph  and  the  brougham,  and  I  shall 
not  be  at  home  for  lunch." 

"  Where  now  ?"  ask  Mrs.  Clay,  look 
ing  after  her  curiously  as  Lily  dis 
appeared. 

"  Oh,  my  dear,  I'm  that  upset  this 
morning  that  I  didn't  even  ask.  Some 
class,  or  school,  or  meeting,  with  Mrs. 
Emory,  of  course.  Girls  are  all  fads 
nowadays.  As  for  me,  what  with  one 
thing  or  another,  I  am  that  put  about 
I  feel  ready  to  fly." 

"  I  don't  wonder,  you  poor  thing," 
cooed  Mrs.  Clay.  "  I  see  you  have  a 
copy  of  that  wretched  article.  Two 
marked  copies  came  to  me  with  my 
breakfast.  You  observe  how  con 
temptibly  they  mix  my  name  with  the 
affair.  Of  course  it  is  all  o*ver  town 
by  this  time." 


THE  AXC,I.OMA\IACS.  225 

This  thought  was  too  much  for  Mrs. 
Floyd-Curtis,  down  whose  ruddy  checks 
rolled  two  very  genuine  tears. 

"  I  tried  to  get  to  you  as  early  as  I 
could,"  went  on  the  sympathizer.  "  I 
know  you  take  these  things  so  hard. 
And  there's  another  matter  I  wanted 
to  talk  about  in  confidence." 

"  Nothing  bad,  I  hope,"  ejaculated 
poor  Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis  forlornly.  She 
was  beginning  to  have  experience  in 
the  privileges  of  intimate  friendship 
with  Mrs.  Bertie  Clay. 

"  Not  bad,  of  course,  but  just  a  little 
queer.  Promise  that  you  wont  breathe 
a  word  of  it  to  Lily.  Well,  it  was  at 
the  opera,  night  before  last,  when  I 
took  your  place  in  chaperoning  her. 
I'd  observed  that  during  the  early  part 
of  the  evening  she  had  never  seemed 


226  THE  ANGLOMAXIACS. 

so  bored  and  spiritless.  She  let  the 
men  come  and  go,  without  the  least 
effort  to  retain  them.  In  the  entracte, 
when  both  she  and  I  were  talking  to 
our  visitors,  I  noticed  her  eyes  roam 
ing  absently  over  the  people  in  the 
parquet.  Suddenly  a  most  extraordi 
nary  change  came  over  her.  Her  face 
positively  lighted  up,  she  leaned  for 
ward  and  smiled,  and  then  as  suddenly 
drew  back  and  tried  to  recover  her 
self-possession.  It  was  all  over  in  a 
minute.  She  did  not  know,  but  quick 
as  thought  I  had  my  glass  up,  and  was 
looking  in  the  same  direction." 

"  And  you  saw— 

"  Bah  !  he  was  big  enough  and  b£te 
enough.  Standing  up  in  a  row  of  men 
back  of  the  stalls,  and  staring  with  all 
his  eyes  at  our  box,"  said  Mrs.  Clay 


THE  AXC.I.OMAXIACS.  227 

contemptuously,  "  I  saw  that  everlast 
ing  Jencks." 

"  She  has  not  seen  him  for  a  year. 
She  cant  care  for  him.  It's  ridicu 
lous  ! "  exclaimed  the  mother. 

"  The  only  part  I  thought  inexplic 
able  was  that,  with  so  much  en 
couragement,  the  man  should  have 
turned  his  back  and  walked  out  of 
the  door.  I  did  not  catch  another 
glimpse  of  him  that  evening,  nor  did 
she,  I  am  sure,  for  I  saw  she  was  on 
the  watch." 

.  "  She  could  not  have  met  him  last 
night,  at  the  —  it  would  be  just  like 
his  impudence  to  go  turning  up 
at  the  —  they're  so  odd  in  having 
people  of  that  kind — no,  for  she  told 
me  all  the  men  that  dined  at  Mrs. 
Emory's,"  pursued  the  anxious  mother. 


228  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

"  And  she's  moping  now,  don't  you 
see  ?  "  suggested  Barbara.  "  Depend 
on  it,  she's  not  laid  eyes  on  him. 
Oh,  trust  me  !  I  know  girls." 

"  I'm  the  most  unfortunate  woman 
in  the  world,"  cried  out  Mrs.  Floyd- 
Curtis,  fresh  tears  coming  into  her 
eyes.  "  My  nervous  system  wont  be 
worth  a  row  of  pins  if  this  goes  on 
much  longer." 

"It  is  deplorable  for  you,"  sighed 
Barbara.  "  Few  people  have  your 
high-strung  sensibility.  Now,  dear, 
brace  yourself  ;  take  your  luncheon, 
and  let  us  go  for  a  good  drive 
in  the  Park.  Remember  that  in 
a  few  days  your  ordeal  will  be 
ended." 

"  Yes,  but  how  ?  Melrose  will  be 
here  on  Saturday,  but  who  knows 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  229 


how  that  obstinate  girl  will  treat  him  ? 
She's  just  as  likely  to  ily  off  the 
handle  after  all.  Why,  yesterday 
there  arrived  from  him  a  most  beauti 
fully  packed  box  of  oranges  in  their 
own  leaves  and  blossoms,  and  a  layer 
of  moss  and  yellow  jasmines  over  it. 
\\  hat  did  she  do  but  glance  at  it, 
put  his  card  in  the  fire,  and  send  the 
whole  thing  on  to  some  one  else. 
She  has  no  sentiment.  She's  like  a 
stone  to  Melrose,  and  see  how  beauti 
fully  he's  behaved !  So  gentleman 
like — so  patient." 

"  Yes,  he  is  very  patient,"  Barbara 
allowed,  bending  over  to  examine  a 
photograph  of  Lord  Melrose  set  in  a 
frame  of  Rhine-stones,  in  which  at 
titude  she  could  not  be  observed  to 
smile.  The  whole  thing  was  begin- 


23°  THE  AtfGLOMANIACS. 

ning  to  be  a  farce  to  her.  It  had  long 
since  overtasked  her  slender  stock  of 
sympathy.  She  thought  Melrose  a 
fool,  and  had  told  him  so,  for  sub 
mitting  to  Lily's  whims.  She  was 
worn  out  with  the  woes  of  Mrs. 
Floyd-Curtis  on  the  subject,  and  had 
caricatured  them  more  than  once 
among  her  own  congenial  followers. 
Between  herself  and  Lily,  who  had 
been  unpleasantly  enlightened  as  to 
pretty  Barbara's  ways  by  several  occur 
rences  during  their  stay  in  London, 
a  tacit  war  had  set  in. 

"  Lily  is  headstrong,"  she  admitted, 
knowing  too  well  that  a  more  active 
expression  of  disapproval  would  bring 
the  frowns  of  her  patroness  upon 
herself ;  and  then  by  judicious  flat 
teries  and  gossip  she  contrived  to 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  231 


steni  the  swelling  tide  of  the  poor 
woman's  sorrow  until  their  lunch  was 
served. 

After  this  repast,  where,  under  the 
chilling  supervision  of  the  first,  second, 
and  third  men,  the  ladies  picked  at 
some  birds  and  trifled  with  aspic  jel 
lies,  the  carriage  .was  announced.  It 
was  an  open  carriage,  of  course  ;  for 
since  Mrs.  Peter  van  Shuter's  return 
from  London,  with  an  asthma  that 
required  daily  exercise  in  her  landau 
with  the  top  thrown  back,  no  self- 
respecting  woman  of  New  York  could 
have  been  induced,  no  matter  how 
nipping  cold  the  wintry  weather,  to 
exhibit  herself  in  the  Park  behind 
the  glasses  of  a  closed  vehicle.  Mrs. 
Floyd-Curtis  suffered  horribly  from 
neuralgia  in  the  head,  but  then  every 


232  THE  A  A'GLO  MANIACS. 

one  could  see  she  knew  how  they  do 
the  thing  in  England. 

The   address   given   by   Lily  to   her 
coachman   on    entering-  the  brougham 

o  o 

was  neither  that  of  Mrs.  Emory  nor  of 
any  of  her  accustomed  places  of  resort. 
She  had,  in  fact,  resolved  upon  a  bold 
and  unprecedented  stroke.  She  was 
going  to  call  upon  a  gentleman  and 
make  him  ofive  her  luncheon.  The 

o 

number  and  street  contributed  to 
Joseph's  listening  ear  were  those  of 
the  down-town  store  of  Mr.  Eliphalet 
F.  Curtis.  She  enjoyed  the  long  jolt 
ing  drive  along  Broadway,  and  even 
the  perilous  delight  of  finding  her  trim 
little  carriage  caught  now  and  again, 
like  a  nut  in  the  crackers,  between 
some  huge  beer-wagon,  drawn  by  three 
Normandy  draft-horses  abreast,  and  a 


THE  ANGLO.MAMACS.  233 

line  of  blocked  street  cars,  with  ve 
hicles  to  the  right,  left,  everywhere, 
stationary  and  continually  increasing 
in  number,  while  passengers  protested 
and  drivers  swore.  To  cross  from  one 
side  of  the  jammed  thoroughfare  to 
the  other  necessitated  feats  of  agility 
that  would  have  done  credit  to  a  harle 
quin.  Bolder  pedestrians  would  dodge 
under  the  heads  of  horses  or  across 
the  platforms  of  the  cars.  Timid 
ones,  and  women  with  shopping  bags 
and  parcels,  contented  themselves  by 
craning  heads  from  either  sidewalk 
and  asking  questions,  imperfectly  sup 
plied  with  answers  from  the  blue-i 
coated  policeman  who  vainly  strove 
to  straighten  out  this  puzzle  of  the 
streets.  To  the  nationalities  that  go 
to  swell  such  a  crowd  of  every  day  in 


234  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

lower  Broadway  all  Europe  and  parts 
of  the  East  contribute,  and  the  types 
are  interestingly  varied ;  but  plain 
truth  exacts  the  statement  that  over 
them  all  the  voice  and  presence  domi 
nant  in  petty  authority  is  that  of  Erin. 


VII. 

ONCE  arrived  before  the  dingy  build 
ing,  on  a  narrow  cross-street,  where 
a  faded  sign  proclaimed  her  father's 
name  and  business,  Lily  dismissed  her 
brougham. 

"  Now  I  have  burnt  my  ships, 
daddy,"  she  said,  following  an  aston 
ished  clerk  into  the  den  that  contained 
Eliphalet.  "  And  there  is  nothing  but 
to  submit.  I've  come  to  make  a  day 
of  it,  and  you  have  me  on  your  hands." 

Mr.  Curtis  felt  inclined  to  pinch 
himself  and  wonder  whether  or  not  he 
was  Caliph  of  Bagdad.  He  was  stand 
ing  at  a  desk,  going  over  the  columns 
of  a  great  ledger,  when  she  came  in, 
235 


236  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


and  his  face  looked  gray  and  tired. 
But  it  brightened  amazingly  when  he 
found  that  his  girl  had  come  to  him  of 
her  own  accord  to  seek  his  companion 
ship,  after  some  manner  of  which  the 
plan  was  not  yet  entirely  perfected. 
As  to  the  juniors  of  the  staid  mercan 
tile  establishment,  their  eyes  blinked 
with  excitement.  Such  an  event  as 
the  visit  of  this  houri  had  not  been 
known  at  Curtis's  in  the  memory  of 
the  house. 

"  It's  such  a  lovely  day  after  the 
storm,  dad,  and  I've  such  a  longing  for 
a  rampage,"  Lily  said,  nestling  up  to 
his  arm  when  she  got  him  finally  into 
the  street.  "  Take  me  over  the  Brook 
lyn  Bridge  and  to  the  Bartholdi  Statue. 
I  mean  to  make  you  climb  up — up 
every  step — to  the  very  torch  ;  and  to 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  237 

the  Stock  Exchange  ;  and  perhaps  to 
the  top  of  the  Equitable  Building-.  I 
don't  really  care  much  where  we  go, 
only  it  must  be  like  the  old  Saturday 
afternoons  when  we  lived  in  the  old 
house.  And  I'm  hungry,  sir,  remem 
ber.  You're  expected  to  stand  treat, 
and  handsomely." 

Eliphalet,  who  on  the  subject  of 
treats  for  growing  womanhood  had 
but  a  crude  general  reminiscence  of 
the  ice  cream  saloons  of  his  youth, 
rallied  his  scattered  faculties  to  pro 
pose  resorting  to  a  famous  restau 
rant. 

"  Is  that  where  you  lunch  every  day, 
dear  ?  "  Lily  asked.  "  Because  if  it 
isn't  there  is  no  manner  of  use  in  sug 
gesting  it.  Come  no\v,  be  fair  and 
square,  and  take  me  to  your  favorite 


238  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

place,  to    eat    your  favorite  dish,    and 
nothing  else." 

For  the  first  time  in  many  a  long 
day  she  saw  her  father's  thin  face 
broaden  to  laughter. 

O 

"By  George,  I'll  do  it,  Lil  !"  he  ex 
claimed.  "  What  would  your  mother 
say  if  she  knew  it  was  pork  and 
beans  ?" 

Lily  never  forgot  her  introduction 
to  the  little  back  parlor  of  Mistress 
Betty  Jones,  where  the  landlady,  who 
was  also  cook,  served  them  with  the 
succulent  dainty  beloved  of  Eliphalet 
since  childhood.  The  whole  place  was 
admirably  clean,  and  the  patrons  were 
quiet  decent  folk,  on  whose  steady 
patronage  old  Betty  could  rely. 

After  luncheon  Lily,  like  a  will-o'- 
the-wisp,  led  her  father  from  point  to 


THE  AXGLOMAXIACS.  239 

point  of  the  lower  portion  of  the  town, 
where  it  pleased  her  vagrant  fancy  to 
remember  she  had  heard  of  strangers 
going. 

"  You  are  to  consider  me  a  Jersey 
cousin,  dad,"  her  orders  were.  "  And 
show  me  every  place  I  read  of  in  the 
daily  papers." 

"I'd  have  my  hands  full,  Lil,  and 
you'd  be  pretty  soon  tired  out." 

"  Oh,  never !  I  feel  so  strong  in 
this  atmosphere  where  everything  is 
moving.  Don't  look  so  scared,  dad, 
when  any  one  jostles  against  me.  I'm 
not  salt  or  sugar.  I'm  just  one  of 
them.  I  want  to  keep  on  with  the 
crowd  that  never  ends  and  never  rests, 
and  find  what  they  are  looking  for." 

"  That's  your  young  blood,  my  girl. 
Confound  me,  though,  if  I  don't  be- 


24°  THE  ANGLOMAATIACS. 

lieve  you're  as  good  a  Yankee  as  they 
make  'em." 

"  No,  but  I'm  the  best  sort  of  an 
American.  I  like  poor  old  New  York 
they  abuse  so,  because  she's  a  type  of 
our  grand  country.  Where,  on  the 
other  side,  did  anybody  ever  see  a 
throng  like  this,  all  the  nations  push 
ing  forward  neck  and  neck,  so  confi 
dent,  so  eager  ?  And  when  I  think 
that  they  can't  exhaust  us,  of  course 
I'm  proud.  I'm  eaten  up  with  pride  ! " 

" 'T  sounds  like  a  Fourth  o'  July 
oration,  Lil,"  her  father  answered,  look 
ing  at  her  glowing  face  with  his  own 
share  of  the  feeling  she  had  tried  to 
put  into  words. 

Boarding  the  little  boat  that  runs  to 
accommodate  pilgrims  to  the  shrine  of 
Liberty,  they  visited  Bedloe's  Island, 


THE  A.\<.;i.OMA.\IACS.  24! 

where  the  brazen  goddess  holds  her 
court ;  and  returning  thence  crossed 
the  bridge  in  a  cable-car,  to  walk  home 
along  the  way  for  pedestrians.  It  was 
a  beautiful  midwinter  day,  a  fair  sam 
ple  of  the  wondrous  elastic  atmosphere 
and  dazzling  sunshine  with  which  Prov 
idence  has  of  late  years  favored  New 
York  at  frequent  intervals  ;  weather 
variously  attributed  by  the  wiseacres 
to  whims  of  the  Gulf  Stream  deflected 
from  its  course,  and  to  the  irrigation  of 
far  Western  plains,  but  acceptable  to 
all.  To  stand  midway  on  the  bridge,  a 
spider's  web  of  steel  that  links  the  two 
great  cities,  to  watch  the  life  afloat  of 
the  mighty  stream  below,  is  a  sensa 
tion  not  to  be  despised  by  the  most 
blase  of  travelers.  Lily,  always  suscep 
tible  of  impressions,  and  keyed  to  ex- 


242  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

citement  by  hurtling  winds  and  active 
exercise,  threw  herself  with  delight  into 
the  enjoyment  of  the  scene.  Looking 
over  at  an  outgoing  steamship,  her 
decks  black  with  people,  she  was 
tempted  to  wave  her  hand  and  cry 
exultingly  : 

"  Good-by,  good-by  !  I  am  sorry  for 
you.  You  are  going  away  from  the 
beautiful  land  of  youth  and  hope  to 
the  old  world  that  has  clone  its  best — " 

"  Why,  Lily  ! "  said  her  father. 
"  This  doesn't  look  much  like  what 
your  mother  tells  me  we've  got  to 
expect  for  you." 

"  O  father  !  "  the  girl  exclaimed,  with 
an  April  change  of  face.  "  That's 
what  I  came  to  talk  to  you  about.  I 
put  it  off  because — because  I  wanted 
so  to  be  my  own  old  self — your  little 


Tin-:  A \C.I.OM.\.\ i ACS.  243 

Lil,  away  with  her  daddy  for  a  lark 
once  more — one  little  time  more." 

"Then  you're  going  to  marry  the 
English  gentleman,  my  dear?" 

Eliphalet,  with  true  American  shy 
ness  of  a  title,  would  have  styled  his 
future  son-in-law  "Mr.  Melrose"  had 
it  been  feasible.  As  it  was,  his  choice 
of  a  phrase  had  the  ill  luck  to  strike 
Lily  an  unexpected  blow.  An  English 
gentleman — which  English  gentleman  ? 
Alas  for  the  possibility  of  the  sugges 
tion.  For  the  life  of  her,  Lily  could 
not  now  speak  the  words  her  father 
waited  patiently  to  hear. 

"  Well,  I  don't  say  it  aint  a  trial," 
Eliphalet  went  on,  "to  have  to  live  in 
the  London  climate  and  drink  luke 
warm  water  to  your  meals.  But  your 
mother  says  you'll  be  spending  a  good 


244  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

spell  in  the  country  every  year,  and 
will  likely  keep  your  health.  She  says 
we've  got  no  call  to  put  our  notions  in 
the  way  of  such  a  marriage  for  you, 
and" — here  he  sighed  grievously — "I 
guess  Amelia's  right.  Your  mother 
always  was  a  master-hand  to  manage. 
I  can't  say  I  take  much  stock  in 
lords," — another  woeful  sigh, — "  but  I 
guess  Amelia's  right." 

Looking  as  cheerful  as  an  under 
taker  at  his  post  of  duty,  Mr.  Curtis 
strode  along,  Lily's  grasp  tightening 
upon  his  arm. 

"  Listen  to  me,  dad,"  she  at  last  said 
rapidly.  "In  two  days,  you  know, 
Lord  Melrose  will  be  coming  back 
from  Florida,  and  then,  if  I'm  an  hon 
orable  girl  and  fit  to  be  your  daughter, 
I  must  give  him  a  final  answer.  Your 


TIIK  AKGLOHAXIACS.  245 


word's  as  good  as  your  bond,  daddy, 
I've  heard  people  say,  and  so  must 
mine  be.  My  answer's  got  to  be  the 
truth.  And  I  don't  love  him.  Oh,  I 
don't !  I  don't  !  But  I  like  him  :  he's 
kind  and  gentle  ;  he  never  turned  his 
back  on  me,  and  treated  me  as  if  I 
were  a  horrid,  heartless  thing  that 
couldn't  feel.  He  doesn't  think  I'm  a 
miserable  little  worldly  time-server 
that  values  a  man  only  for  outside 
advantages.  He  wouldn't  break  my 
heart,  and  go  off  and  not  care  a  bit." 

"To  be  sure  he  wouldn't,  Lil,"  said 
her  father,  surprised  at  her  unneces 
sary  vehemence. 

"  We  like  the  same  things — horses, 
I  mean,  and  dogs,  and  the  country,  and 
yachting;  and  I'd  be  happy,  maybe,  in 
his  ways." 


246  7Y/7s   AXGLOMAXIACS. 

"  So  your  ma  says,  deary,"  inter 
posed  Mr.  Curtis,  catching  at  a  straw. 
"  She  says  you'll  soon  be  to  home  with 
the  old  women  and  the  flannel  petti 
coats.  But  there'll  be  a  lot  of  moving 
house  in  the  one  year,  and  you'll  likely 
miss  some  of  our  conveniences.  Well, 
well,  when  I  think  how  those  fellows 
over  there  bow  down  and  cotton  to  a 
lord — whew  !  " 

Poor  Eliphalet,  whose  sentiment  had 
its  boundaries,  was  becoming  some 
what  bewildered  at  her  attitude.  In 
his  mind  girls  were  girls,  all  of  them 
inclined  to  be  flighty  and  hysterical 
when  the  marriage  question  is  dis 
cussed.  For  so  many  months  had  his 
Amelia  schooled  him  to  believe  that 
the  union  of  Lily  with  Lord  Melrose 
was  meet,  right,  and  most  desirable, 


THE  AXC.I.O.MAXIACS.  247 

that,  having  accepted  the  idea,  he  was 
not  prepared  to  drop  it  suddenly.  I  Ic 
tried  to  quiet  her  agitation  by  putting 
the  hand  upon  his  arm.  A  larger  soul 

mio-ht  have   divined  the  trouble  of   her 

O 

poor  little  maiden  heart. 

"  What  I  wanted  to  ask  you,  father," 
Lily  resumed,  "  is  whether  I'm  giving 
him  enough  ?" 

"Enough!  Well,  I  should  smile," 
quoth  the  material  Eliphalet. 

"  No  one  knows.  No  one  can 
understand,"  the  girl  thought,  alone  in 
her  pretty  chamber  that  night.  She 
had  sent  away  the  tiresome,  officious 
maid,  and  sat,  her  eyes  plunged  into 
the  depths  of  a  mirror  framed  in  silver, 
and  decorated  with  candles,  like  a 
shrine.  Littering  the  room  were  the 
dainty  belongings  wealth  is  able  to 


248  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

confer  upon  fortunate  maidenhood. 
What  to  less  favored  mortals  of  her 
class  is  the  heart's  desire  of  useless 
luxury  encompassed  her.  In  the  re 
flection  offered  by  her  mirror  she  saw 
fine  textures,  unbroken  lines  of  youth, 
exquisite  flesh  tints,  a  loosened  abun 
dance  of  hair  that  was  a  glory ;  none 
of  the  poignant  suggestions  of  beauty 
having  run  its  course  that  are  like  tiny 
daggers  to  the  wisest  woman  in  her 
maturity  ;  all  to  win  love  and  hold  it 
she  possessed,  and  yet — and  yet — her 
heart  of  twenty  years  was  aching 
wearily  ! 

Impatiently  she  put  out  her  candles, 
and,  going  to  the  window,  drew  aside 
the  curtain  and  looked  out  into  the 
night.  Somewhere  a  clock  was  striking 
twelve.  In  the  square  beneath  a  few 


THE  A  XG  I.O.MAX  I  ACS.  249 

hurrying  figures  were  seen,  for  the 
weather  had  changed,  and  it  was  com 
ing  on  to  snow.  In  most  housas  the 
lights  of  downstairs  had  been  extin 
guished,  and  those  in  the  upper  stories 
burned  with  a  softened  glow  behind 
the  window-shades.  Like  herself, 
many  another  had  sought  the  moment 
of  isolation  when  the  day's  events  and 
the  secrets  of  the  heart  meet  together 
to  be  reviewed  and  analyzed.  Ah,  that 
time  of  pitiless  introspection  that,  like 
Atra  Cura,  waits  on  all  of  us,  when 
wrongs  done,  hasty  words  spoken,  love 
alienated,  unworthy  passions  loosed 
to  work  their  destroying  will,  good 
impulses  stifled,  lost  opportunities, 
throng  and  "  dreadfully  beset "  the 
undefended  citadel  of  memory  ! 

Lily,  sweet  soul,  who  had  harmed  no 


250  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

one  but  herself,  as  a  bird  tears  its 
breast  against  a  brier,  thought  she 
might  dedicate  this  lonely  hour  to 
wondering  again  why  the  man  she 
loved  had  gone  away,  without  a  word 
to  show  the  gladness  his  eyes  had 
spoken  at  seeing  her,  after  long 
months  of  absence.  She  had  tried  so 
hard,  so  hard  to  forget  him.  The 
chance  meeting  of  their  gaze  at 
the  opera  proved  with  what  success. 
She  now  even  struggled  to  persuade 
herself  that  she  was  mistaken  about 
his  looks,  his  bearing,  the  charm 
his  personality  had  had  for  her.  But 
more  than  a  year's  absence  from 
sight  counted  for  nothing  since  she 
had  seen  him  again.  He  was  taller, 
grander,  better  to  look  at  than  all 
other  men.  At  one  word  of  bid- 


Till-.   AXGI.OMAXIACS.  251 

ding  from  him  she  would  quit  home, 
fortune,  family,  and  roam  the  wide 
world  at  his  side.  And  he  would  not 
speak  that  word,  or  any  word.  His 
obstinate  silence,  his  strength  of  man 
hood  enabling  him  to  keep  away  from 
her,  were  like  a  wall  of  rock  against 
which  her  lamentations  beat  like 
waves.  And  the  rock  did  not  feel 
the  waves.  "  With  all  my  soul  and 
strength  I  love  you,"  he  had  said— 
and  left  her. 

This  cruel  thought  made  Lily  blush 
in  the  darkness.  She  felt  ready  to  die 
of  shame  at  her  longing  and  her  pain. 
It  nerved  her  to  face  the  consideration 
of  the  new  life  into  which  events 
seemed  crowding  her  forward  with 
tremendous  force.  It  was  now  virtu 
ally  settled  that  on  the  arrival  of  Mel- 


252  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

rose  their  betrothal  should  take  place. 
In  a  few  days  every  one  would  hear  of 
it,  and  the  heart  of  Ernest  Jencks 
would  be  wrenched  away  from  her  for 
ever.  The  first  act  of  her  little  com 
monplace  life-drama  would  be  ended 
and  forgot.  Books  said,  everybody  of 
experience  told  her,  that  first  loves 
were  as  apt  to  float  away  from  memory 
as  thistledowns  upon  a  summer  breeze. 
A  youth's  fancy,  a  maiden's  love- 
dream,  of  what  value  are  they  in 
history?  If  to  marry  as  she  now 
proposed  would  make  the  happi 
ness  of  Melrose  and  her  mother, 
Lily  in  her  pride  of  spirit  had  no 
fear  but  that  she  could  live  down  the 
other. 

Occupied  with  such  uncheerful  mus 
ings,  the  young  girl  saw  from  her  post 


253 


a  light  burning'  in  the  window  of  a 
neighbor,  whose  child  she  remembered 
to  have  heard  was  very  ill.  By  the 
electric  chain  of  memory  she  was  led 
to  connect  this  circumstance  with  an 
experience  of  her  friend  Grace  Kmory 
the  year  before.  So  deeply  had  it 
impressed  her  that  the  \vry  words 
Grace  had  used  in  describing  it  came 
to  her  ear  again.  The  Emorys,  who 
had  been  dining  from  home,  and  had 
left  their  children  in  apparent  good 
health,  returned  at  eleven  o'clock  to 
find  their  house  astir  with  the  con 
fusion  of  sudden  illness.  Hal,  the  lit 
tle  golden-haired  sailor  laddie  of  their 
fondest  love,  had  been  stricken  with 
some  malady  unknown  :  had  awaked, 
calling  his  mother,  who  came  not  until, 
bursting  into  the  room  in  her  even 


254  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

dress,  poor  Grace  gathered  her  treas 
ure  in  her  arms,  and  prayed  for 
strength  to  bear  what  was  to  come. 
The  doctor,  hastily  summoned,  found 
her  in  silk  attire  with  bare  arms,  her 
ornaments  and  flowers  torn  despair 
ingly  from  her  to  strew  the  floor, 
while  she  knelt  at  the  boy's  feet  and 
laved  them  in  a  hot  bath.  That  nio-ht, 

o 

the  next,  and  the  next,  Grace  never 
slept.  Pneumonia,  swift  and  deadly, 
had  laid  hold  upon  her  darling. 
Trained  nurses,  the  kindest  ministry 
of  friends,  came  to  her  aid,  but  at  last 
there  was  a  night  watch  when  it 
seemed  likely  that  no  love  of  earth 
could  stay  the  little  life  about  to  pass. 
Dimmed  with  suffering,  his  wide  blue 
eyes  sought  his  mother ;  his  feeble 
grasp  retained  her ;  the  rose-leaf  spots 


THE  AXGLO.MAXIACS.  255 

of  fever  had  faded  from  his  cheeks, 
a  faint  blue  shadow  was  gathering 
around  the  mouth  that  had  yielded 
merriment  and  kisses  :  Grace,  whose 
whole  yearning  soul  was  in  her  gaze, 
forgot  all  besides  the  child  given  her 
in  anguish,  about  to  be  taken  from  her 
in  anguish,  and  the  wave  of  sorrow 
bowed  her  down. 

"  I  thought  I  had  lost  him,  Lily," 
Grace  had  said.  "In  that  moment, 
when  I  touched  the  depths,  I  felt  my 
husband's  arms  close  around  me.  I  felt 
his  heart-beats.  I  felt  the  soothing  of 
his  love.  It  was  a  divine  message 
telling  me  to  live.  O  Lily,  dear !  I 
knew  then  that  there  are  times  in  every 
woman's  life  when  nothing  but  love  is 

O 

worth  anything." 

And  with  her  eyes   fixed   upon  the 


256  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

opposite  casement,  now  glimmered  to 
red  in  the  surrounding  gloom,  Lily 
kept  vigil  with  such  thoughts.  "  It 
was  for  the  last  time,"  she  pleaded 
with  herself;  "the  very,  very  last." 


VIII. 

THE  day  appointed  for  the  return  of 
Lord  Melrose  from  his  travels  in  the 
South  was  closely  followed  by  that 
fixed  for  the  accomplishment  of  a 
scheme  by  which  the  superfluities  of 
fashion  were  to  be  made  to  supply  the 
needs  of  charity ;  in  other  words,  a 
costume  ball  for  the  benefit  of  a 
favorite  good  work. 

This  entertainment,  the  very  "  rose 
and  crown "  of  many  hopes,  was  to 
be  given  in  the  picturesque  Venetian 
palace  of  the  arts  that,  instead  of  aris 
ing  from  waves  that  kiss  its  feet,  is 
prosaically  placed  at  the  intersection 
of  two  busy  thoroughfares,  where  car- 
257 


25  8  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


tracks  cross,  and  the  interminable  tide 
of  traffic  on  \vheels  ebbs  and  flows. 
To  prelude  the  ball  a  number  of  its 
participants  had  arranged  dinners  at 
their  own  houses,  to  which  were  bid 
den  enough  guests  to  form  a  double 
quadrille,  each  party  choosing  a  period 
to  illustrate  by  costumes  and  device  in 
decoration  of  the  feast.  Later  all  the 
banqueters  were  to  unite  in  dancing 
for  the  admiration  of  those  who  had 
enjoyed  their  soup  and  roast  at  home, 
attired  in  medieval  splendor,  and  beset 
with  gloomy  consciousness  of  sup 
pressed  derision  among  the  wondering 
attendants  of  their  everyday  demands. 
No  feature  of  a  fancy  ball  is  more  for 
midable  than  the  first  exhibition  of 
one's-self  in  lendings  assumed  with 
clffidence  as  embodying  one's  own 


THE  AXGI.OUANIACS.  259 

"conception  of  the  part."  The  sheep 
ish  descent  of  his  staircase  by  a  mid 
dle-aged  father  of  a  family  who  has 
consented  to  go  as  a  courtier  in  pink 
tights  and  puffy  knee-breeches,  curled 
wig  and  flapping  hat,  is  a  pleasant 
spectacle  for  the  maids  who  congregate 
and  giggle  upon  the  basement  stairs. 
Mr.  Pickwick's  scorn  of  Mr.  Tupman 
as  a  bandit  is  nothing  by  comparison 
with  the  feelings  of  a  wife  who  beholds 
her  lord  in  tin  armor,  struggling  to 
find  his  pocket-handkerchief. 

It  is  not  my  intention  to  give  a  de 
tailed  account  of  the  great  fancy  ball 
that  kept  newswriters  busy  for  a  week, 
alternated  with  reports  of  street-car 
strikes  and  riots  by  citizens  who  had  no 
fancy  dresses  to  distract  their  minds. 
Such  descriptions  are  so  familiar  to 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


the  novel-reader  that  he  or  she  may 
turn  to  the  one  liked  best  in  fiction 
and  fit  it  to  my  scene.  The  "whirling 
medley  of  Greeks,  Turks,  flower-girls, 
and  monks "  we  usually  read  about 
was  here,  only  varied  by  a  general 
determination  on  the  part  of  the 
committee  toward  historical  and 
picturesque  costumes.  It  was  conse 
quently  an  affair  on  more  grandiose 
proportions  than  any  seen  before  it  in 
New  York.  The  effects  were  admir 
ably  planned  :  the  groups  mounting 
and  descending  the  wide  marble  stair 
way  between  antique  tapestries  and 
palms,  and  beef-eaters,  hired  from  the 
Casino  theater ;  the  balustrades  hung 
with  cloth  of  gold  ;  the  reception  com- 
mitteee  bowing  and  curtsying  to  slow 
music  under  silken  banners  that  sub- 


THE  AKGI.OMAXIACS.  261 


clued  the  light  ;  the  quadrilles  danced 
in  a  roped  inclosure  amid  the  liberal 
criticism  of  on-lookers  who  trod  upon 
one  another's  toes  to  climb  on  the 
benches;  the  utter  inability  of  any 
reveler  to  make  out  what  his  neigh 
bor's  costume  was  meant  to  represent, 
inducing  upon  most  faces  a  rather 
vacant  stare — all  these  were  salient 
features  of  the  brilliant  show. 

Everybody  was  happy ;  at  least,  so 
everybody  said.  Some  exceptions 
there  might  have  been — the  mothers 
of  young  ladies  who  had  gone  to  the 
most  untold  pains  and  expense  to  get 
up  costumes,  and  who  saw  their  darl 
ings  flattened  unseen  against  a  wall  ; 
the  men  who  reached  the  supper-room 
after  the  champagne  had  given  out ; 
the  weary  husbands  supporting  the 


262  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

doorways  with  dislocating  yawns,  and 
thinking  of  the  office  at  9  A.M.  to-mor 
row,  while  their  wives  waltzed  cease 
lessly  ;  the  youngster  whose  maiden 
fair  had  derided  his  false  mustache ; 
the  doorkeeper  who  stood  shivering  in 
the  wintry  draught,  longing  to  ex 
change  his  fur-trimmed  but  airy  Martin 
Luther  tunic  for  an  overcoat ;  the  re 
porters,  despairingly  jotting  down  their 
impressions,  and  rushing  away  to  pre 
sent  next  morning's  readers  of  their 
newspapers  with  Mrs.  Jones  in  Mrs. 
Smith's  costume — to  describe  the  fes 
tive  appearance  in  public  of  new- 
made  widowers — and  to  conjure  from 
their  graves,  as  guests,  people  who 
had  long  since  renounced  mortal  vani 
ties  with  breath.  It  is  not  known 
whether  the  participants  so  enumer- 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


ated  felt  the  game  was  worth  the 
candle. 

One  portion  of  the  community  in 
dulged  in  enjoyment  unalloyed  of 
this  famous  spectacle.  I  refer  to  the 
lookers-on  not  supplied  with  tickets 
costing-  ten  dollars  each,  who  clustered 
around  the  awning  at  the  carriage 
way,  giving  free  vent  to  their  artless 
admiration. 

"  Springing  lightly  to  the  sidewalk, 
Lord  Half  red  hassisted  the  fair  Hem- 
mer  to  halight,"  commented  a  lively 
newsboy,  as  a  hero,  with  sword  pro 
truding  from  his  ulster,  and  arctic  over 
shoes  by  way  of  finish  to  his  tights, 
got  out  of  his  carriage  and  helped  a 
lady  to  descend. 

"  For  the  continuation  of  this  thrill 
ing  tale  see  the  '  Family  Story 


264  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


Paper'  for  next  week,"  cried  a  second 
voice. 

"To  be  had  at  all  the  news  stands, 
price  ten  cents,"  remarked  a  third. 

"  Get  on  to  your  legs,  mister,"  was 
the  next  remark,  as  from  the  open  door 
of  a  brougham  protruded  a  spindle 
shank  with  a  huge  buckled  shoe. 

"  Them's  beetle-crushers,"  was  pleas 
antly  said  about  another  display  of 
feet  incased  in  a  pair  of  seventeenth 
century  poulaincs,  or  pointed  shoes. 

"  Aint  she  a  sky-scraper?"  fell  to 
the  lot  of  a  matron  who  wore  the  hen- 
nin,  or  head-dress,  of  the  chatelaines  of 
ancient  France. 

The  difficulties  of  a  Doge  of  Venice, 
who  discovered  that  he  had  left  his 
money  in  his  other  pocket  and  had  not 
wherewithal  to  pay  his  cab  fare,  oc- 


THE  AKG/.0.1fA.\'/ACS.  265 


casioned  exquisite  delight.  The  un 
fortunate  Doge,  finally  invited  by  his 
cabby  to  come  out  and  settle  the 
matter  with  his  fists,  was  detained  upon 
the  curbstone  until  he  contracted  a 
severe  cold  in  the  head.  And  it  may 
be  stated  that  none  of  the  episodes  of 
the  event  seemed  to  have  gained  such 
wide  renown  as  that  of  the  Crusader 
in  full  coat  of  mail,  who,  returning 
home  in  broad  daylight  next  morning, 
was  left  by  his  hansom  upon  the 
parental  door-steps,  where,  for  want  of 
a  latch-key,  he  remained  for  an  hour, 
chilled  to  the  bone  and  furiously  ring 
ing,  attended  by  two  policemen,  the 
milkman,  and  a  gathering  street  mob. 

At  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  the 
preliminary  banquets  Miss  Floyd-Cur 
tis  made  her  appearance.  Her  en- 


266  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

gagement  with  Lord  Melrose  having 
just  been  formally  announced,  they 
went  in  and  were  placed  together  at 
the  feast.  The  young  Englishman,  in 
the  becoming  garb  of  a  cavalier  of 
Venice  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
wore  jauntily  his  cote-hardi  of  blue  and 
red,  with  the  close-fitting  blue  tights 
and  red  velvet  pointed  shoes,  the 
skull-cap  of  velvet  carrying  a  pheasant's 
feather,  with  jeweled  pouch  and  dagger 
at  his  belt.  He  was  an  appropriate 
pendant  to  the  radiant  creature  at  his 
side. 

Lily's  costume  revived  that  of  a 
Venetian  princess  at  the  same  period. 
It  was  in  damask  of  two  shades  of 
orange  and  canary  yellow,  with  flowing 
sleeves  of  golden  tissue,  and  upon  her 
hair  was  perched  a  tiny  cap  with  gold 


THE  A.\C,lA\MANIACS.  26. 

and  topaz  ornaments.  Around  her 
white  throat  she  wore  a  string  of  to 
paz  with  sapphire  pendants.  Every 
woman  has  her  supreme  moment  of 
best  looks,  and  this  was  Lily's.  In  the 
luminous  shimmer  of  these  draperies 
her  peculiar  coloring  was  seen  to  its 
full  advantage.  Her  eyes  shone  as  if 
lighted  with  golden  gleams,  her  cheeks 
were  blooming  richly,  her  laugh  came 
readily. 

In  the  great  paneled  dining-room 
where  they  sat  were  high  friezes  of 
mellow  canvas,  painted  by  long-gone 
hands  and  reft  from  a  genuine  palace 
of  the  Adriatic.  The  table,  repro 
ducing  in  form  the  one  seen  in  the 
Paul  Veronese  "  Marriage  at  Cana," 
was  draped  with  old  Genoese  velvet  of 
ruby  hue,  covered  again  with  squares 


268  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

of  convent  needlework  in  lace,  and 
spread  with  a  burden  that  was  a  joy 
to  color-loving  eyes.  In  the  center 
a  huge  boar's  head,  stuffed  and  gar 
landed,  rose  from  a  golden  dish.  On 
each  side  were  peacocks  spreading 
their  iridescent  tails,  and  platters  high 
piled  with  oranges  and  pines  and 
grapes.  Golden  beakers,  flagons  of 
crystal,  vases  from  which  sheaves  of 
tulips  sprung,  loose  roses  of  deepest 
crimson  with  fronds  of  maidenhair, 
were  scattered  about  the  board.  At 
tendants  in  costume,  a  band  subdued 
by  distance,  the  soft  light  of  innumera 
ble  candles,  the  luster  of  rare  stuffs 
and  glowing"  jewels,  the  disposition  of 
the  guests  upon  one  side  only  of  the 
table,  all  combined  to  heighten  the 

o 

illusion  of  this  royal   picture  of  medie- 


THE  AXCLO.VA.Y/.ICS.  265 


val  Venice.  Later,  at  the  ball,  Lily, 
waving  back  and  forth  her  great  fan  of 
yellow  ostrich-plumes  set  in  an  amber 
stick,  looked  like  a  queen  wielding  her 
scepter.  She  enjoyed  the  homage  of 
the  crowd,  the  admiration,  the  con 
gratulations.  When  she  danced  with 
her  lover  a  consciousness  of  new  impor 
tance  lent  to  her  tread  a  statelier 
spring.  When  she  laid  her  gloved 
hand  upon  his  arm  to  move  away  she 
tried  to  feel  glad  as  well  as  proud  that 
she  had  been  his  choice. 

Melrose,  on  his  side,  was  more 
genuinely  touched  by  her  beauty  and 
her  confidingness  than  he  had  believed 
possible.  His  dormant  pride  of  race 
awoke  at  thought  of  the  opportunity 
this  American  daughter  of  the  people 
had  given  him  to  build  up  anew  th< 


270  THE  ANGLOMAXIACS. 

failing  fortunes  of  his  house.  Resolu 
tions  for  future  good,  like  broken  cob 
webs,  floated  through  his  brain.  He 
felt  strongly  and  sincerely  a  disgust  for 
the  unworthy  passions  that  had  left  for 
this  innocent  young  girl  but  a  love 
that  must  needs  be  nursed  and  cher 
ished  into  honorable  strength. 

o 

Melrose  had  yielded  Lily  to  some 
other  man  and  strolled  off  alone,  mus 
ing  of  these  things,  and  was  gazing 
down  at  the  pageant  on  the  stairs, 
when  a  fan  touched  him  on  the  shoul 
der  from  behind.  Before  turning  to 

O 

see  who  it  was  he  recognized  a  scent 
of  mignonette  inseparable  from  Mrs. 
Bertie  Clay. 

A  woman  quick  of  apprehension,  as 
was  she,  could  not  have  failed  to  per 
ceive  the  resentful  expression  of  his 


THE  ANGLQHANIACS.  271 

eyes  when  he  returned  her  greeting. 
Whatever  this  meant,  she  ignored  it 
airily  as  at  her  request  he  offered  her 
his  arm. 

"  I've  been  so  clever  in  shaking  off 
the  man  who  brought  me  here,"  she 
said.  "  Now,  before  he  comes  back 
from  the  errand  I've  sent  him  on,  I 
look  to  you  to  save  me.  Besides,  I'm 
tired.  I  want  to  sit  down  in  a  quiet 
corner.  I  want  a  chance  to  congratu 
late  my  friend." 

"  I  say,  suppose  we  drop  that,"  he 
said,  when  they  began  to  thread  the 
crowd. 

"  Oh  !  but  you  know  I  feel  so  proud, 
I'm  like  a  child  who's  been  building  a 
card-house.  There's  always  the  ex 
citement,  too,  of  fearing  that  the  house 
may  tumble  down." 


27 2  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

"  I'd  like  to  know  your  meaning. 
I'll  swear  you  are  too  bad." 

"  Not' too  bad  for  you  ?" 

"You  mock  at  everything.  You 
make  a  man  feel  no  woman  can  be — 

"  Hush  !  or  you'll  be  getting  rude," 
she  cried,  as  they  found  seats  in  a 
cushioned  alcove  under  a  swinging 
lamp.  "You  might  at  least  be  civil 
enough  to  tell  me  how  you  like  my 
frock.  Every  other  man  I've  met 
to-night  has  been  inspired  to  elo 
quence." 

She  had,  with  her. usual  perversity, 
declined  to  follow  rules,  and  appeared 
in  an  Eastern  drapery  of  mull  like 
woven  air,  with  chains  of  Indian  gold 
to  bind  it,  and  golden  broideries 
around  the  hem. 

"You    look    very    nice.      You    were 


Till-:  A. \GLOMANI ACS.  273 

always  a  woman  to  suit  those  Indian 
stuffs." 

"  Don't  you  remember  the  one  I 
wore  that  day  on  the  drag'  going  down 
to  Richmond  ?  You  said  it  needed 
gold  ;  you  kept  everybody  waiting 
while  you  got  me  yellow  roses." 

Melrose  stirred  uncomfortably. 

"  Ah  !  but  how  long  ago,"  he  said,  as 
lightly  as  might  be.  "  So  much  has 
happened  since  then— 

"  And  we've  been  such  bons  cama- 
rades.  I  fancy  your  going  really  to  be 
married  makes  me  think  of  it.  A 
woman  can't  help  indulging  in  senti 
ment  about  her — early  friendships." 

"  Come  now,"  the  young  man  said 
resolutely.  "You  have  sought  this 
talk,  not  I.  You  must  have  got  the 
letter  I  sent  over  a  week  ago  ? " 


THE  AiVGLOMANIACS. 


11  I  burnt  it,"  she  said,  toying  with 
her  fan  nervously.  "It  was  too  cruel 
to  be  kept." 

"  I  am  glad  you  burnt  it.  But  I  am 
not  ashamed  of  it,"  he  said,  deliber 
ating  over  his  words.  "  I  don't  want 
to  cut  you  up,  you  know,  but  those 
were  things  I  had  to  say.  It  was  best 
to  make  the  future  clear." 

"  That  you  do  not  desire  my  inti 
macy  with  Lily  to  continue.  That  I, 
in  short,  will  not  be  welcomed  at  your 
house,"  she  said  sharply.  "  Isn't  this  a 
reward  for  unselfishness  ?  What  if  she 
knew  my  share  in  securing  her  great 
prize  ?  And  what  delightful  reading 
for  her  would  be  certain  old  letters— 

"  What  !  —  you   would   dare  ?  " 

"If,  I  was  going  to  say  —  if  I  had 
not  destroyed  them  too,"  she  hurried 


THE  AXGLOMAXIACS.  275 

on,  warned  by  a  flash  of  anger  of  his 
eye.  "  You  asked  me  to  do  so,  don't 
you  know,  when  the  thing  began  to 
take  shape  seriously." 

Melrose  drew  a  long  breath  of 
relief. 

"  Any  other  woman,"  he  said,  "  I 
should  not  despair  of  convincing  that 
whatever  I  once  was,  I'm  now  thor 
oughly  in  earnest." 

"  Go  on.  So  disinterested  !  It's 
beautiful,"  she  said,  with  a  soft  laugh. 

"  But  you're  one  there's  no  deal 
ing  with  in  the  ordinary  way.  You'd 
make  any  man  a  brute.  Knowing  you 
as  I  do,  and  as  they  do  not,  how 
could  this  have  been  otherwise." 

"  You  like  phrases,"  she  said  con 
temptuously.  "  I  go  everywhere.  I'm 
in  with  everybody.  I've  made  these 


276  THE  AXGLOMANIACS. 

poor  little  parvenues,  and  I've  made 
your  affair." 

"  Don't  speak  of  it  to  me.  I  for 
bid  it.  It  would  have  been  so  in  any 
case.  She  is  the  sweetest,  most 
honest— 

"  Of  course  she  is  ;  and  if  she  had 
been  a  beggar-maid  King  Cophetua 
would  have  stooped  just  the  same. 
But  it  is  I  who  am  aggrieved.  How 
could  I  suppose  that  you  would  delib 
erately  shut  a  door  in  my  poor  face 
—I,  whom  the  world  has  used  so 
roughly— 

"  It  seems  to  me  you  have  got 
even  with  the  world,"  he  burst  out. 

Barbara   smiled   plaintively. 

"  Then  it  is  because  you  have  never 
forgiven  me  ?  That  you  want  to 
punish  me  ?  " 


THE  AXGLOMANlACS.  277 


"You  persist  in  exaggerating.  If 
I  was  ready  to  blow  my  brains  out 
when  you  threw  me  overboard,  I 
soon  learned  to  be  content  with  fate. 
The  idea  of  being  angry  with  you 
for  dropping  me  !  oh,  no  !  " 

A   glow    came    into  her   pale    face. 

"If  you  mean  that  I  put  you  un 
der  an  obligation—  "  she  began. 

"  My  dear  Mrs.  Clay,"  said  Melrose, 
interrupting,  "  you,  who  are  the  clever 
est  of  women,  ought  to  let  this  thing 
be  easier  for  both  of  us." 

"  But  you  are  taking  from  me  every 
thing.  These  people  are  indispens 
able  to  me.  Oh,  but  it  is  too  much  ! " 

Melrose    stood    unmoved. 

"It  would  really  have  been  better 
for  you  not  to  talk  to  me,  you 
know,"  he  said  presently. 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


"  I  have  always  refused  to  quarrel," 
she  cried  out  —  losing  balance  in  face 
of  his  fatal  self-control. 

"  Then  we'd  better  be  getting  back," 
he  answered. 

"  But  I  never  forget  an  insult. 
Take  care  !  " 

"  That  is  what  I  mean  to  do,"  he 
said.  There  was  a  moment's  silence. 
Then  she  took  his  arm  again,  and 
they  went  back  into  the  ball-room. 

The  long  probation  serving  in  lieu 
of  an  engagement,  Lord  Melrose  had 
begged  that  the  marriage  might  take 
place  at  the  end  of  April,  and  Mrs. 
Floyd-Curtis,  after  some  debate  with 
Mrs.  Clay  as  to  what  the  world  would 
say,  consented. 

Across    the    Atlantic    flashed    forth- 


THE  ANGLO  MANIACS. 

with  cable  messages  of  weighty  import 
to  the  Parisian  potentate  of  millinery, 
whose  assistance  in  such  matters  is 
equal  in  importance  to  that  of  the 
clergyman.  Lily's  girl  friends,  not  to 
be  astonished  by  trousseaux  however 
gorgeous,  owned  to  pangs  of  darkling 
envy  at  sight  of  the  cards  attached 
to  sundry  little  tokens  forwarded 
to  Washington  Square  by  English 
steamers.  The  names  upon  such  bits 
of  pasteboard,  in  whatever  ink  they 
might  have  been  originally  printed, 
underwent  a  chemical  change  on  arriv 
ing  in  America,  and  were  seen  to  glow 
with  the  glitter  of  purest  gold. 

Lily's  individual  excitement,  en 
hanced  by  the  confusion  of  a  great 
city  in  a  clelirum  of  Centennial  fervor 
and  that  of  a  society  rent  by  interne- 


280  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

cine  warfare  on  the  subject  of  prece 
dence  at  the  Centennial  ball,  caused 
her  physician  to  recommend  a  tem 
porary  change  of  air.  Lord  Melrose, 
at  whose  disposal  had  been  put  a 
yacht,  thought  of  a  week's  idling  in 
the  bay  of  Chesapeake,  under  the 
warm  sunshine  of  the  Virginia  coast, 
in  whatever  company  she  might  select. 
This  expedition  being  settled,  Mrs. 
Floyd-Curtis  discovered  that  her 
presence  was  indispensable  in  town, 
and  proposed  as  her  substitute  Mrs. 
Bertie  Clay.  She  was  surprised  and 
not  a  little  displeased  at  the  positive 
disapproval  exhibited  by  her  pros 
pective  son-in-law  to  this  scheme. 
Even  Lily,  when  consulted,  seceded 
from  her  supposed  allegiance  to  the 
charming  Barbara,  suggesting  in  her 


THE  A\C,l.OMA\IACS.  281 

stead  the  Kmorys,  husband  and  wife 
and  children,  a  plan  to  which  events 
finally  worked  around  to  the  satisfac 
tion  of  all  concerned.  If  Mrs.  Floyd- 
Curtis  had  cherished  any  secret  doubt 
of  the  eligibility  of  Mrs.  Emory  as  a 
chaperone  for  the  soon  to  be  Lady 
Melrose,  it  was  dissipated  by  the  dis 
covery  that  Grace  had  been  asked  by 
the  committee  and  had  declined  to 
dance  in  the  Centennial  quadrille. 

After  some  days  of  welcome  separa 
tion  from  their  fellow-men,  the  yacht 
party  touched  at  Fortress  Monroe  for 
letters  and  supplies.  Sea  and  sky  and 
April-girdled  shores  were  beautiful  ex 
ceedingly,  when  the  two  gentlemen, 
accompanied  by  Hal  and  Gladys,  put 
off  from  the  yacht  for  a  morning  at 
the  Hygeia.  The  women,  having  an- 


282  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

nounced  their  intention  to  loaf  amid 
rugs  and  cushions  on  the  deck,  fell, 
when  abandoned,  into  one  of  the  long 
and  intimate  talks  which  had  of  late 
been  so  strong  a  stay  to  Lily.  Grace, 
quick-witted  and  sympathetic,  guessed 
something  of  the  struggle  in  the  girl's 
heart,  but  when  the  conversation 
drifted  to  the  point  of  confidence  she 
had  always  deemed  it  best  to  turn 
aside  the  current. 

"  How  bright,  how  buoyant  the  air 
is  here,"  she  said.  "Surely  a  sea  more 
blue  never  rocked  a  fairy  boat  on  its 
wavelets.  I  am  in  a  lotos-eatino-  dream. 

o 

With  Fred  and  the  children,  I  should 
be  satisfied  to  go  on  thus  eternally." 

"Not  you,"  said  Lily.  "You  are 
too  active.  You'd  be  wanting  to  re 
organize  your  crew,  and  get  up  a  mer- 


THE   A\'C,I.OMA\[ACS.  283 

maid  chorus,  or  change  your  course  or 
something,  before  a  month  had  passed. 
Next  year,  Melrose  says,  we  shall 
probably  be  yachting  among  the  West 
ern  Isles,  and  then  you  must  all  come 
and  make  another  party  with  us.  I 
shall  feel  that,  after  my  father  and 
mother,  when  I  give  you  up  I'm  leav 
ing  behind  me  the  best  part  of 
America." 

"  America  salutes  !"  cried  her  friend 
gayly.  "  What  you  suggest  would  be 
only  too  enticing  :  I  should  always  be 
thinking,  though,  of  poor  McLeod  of 
Dare.  Now,  Lily,  I  mean  to  tell  you 
that  Lord  Melrose  has- quite  won  over 
Fred  and  me.  It  did  seem  too  much 
to  expect  to  have  one's  friend  marry 
and  soar  away  into  the  English  aris 
tocracy,  and  like  the  culprit  who's 


284  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

responsible  for  the  calamity.  But  he's 
so  simple  and  straightforward — and 
kind.  No  one  who  sees  him  as  we  do 
now  can  help  feeling  friends  with  him. 
My  dear,  you  must  be  happy." 

"  Yes,  he  is  all  you  say,"  the  girl 
replied.  She  had  turned  aside  her 
head,  and  was  gazing  seaward.  Grace 
saw  that  her  eyes  were  full  of  tears, 
and  at  this  juncture  a  sailor  passing 
them  announced  that  the  yacht's  boat 
had  put  off  from  the  dock  of  the  hotel. 

"Those  darlincrs!"    exclaimed   Mrs. 

£> 

Emory,  meaning  her  offspring.  "How 
they  will  chatter  when  I  get  them 
back  !  And  the  steward  has  confided  to 
me  that  we  shall  be  the  richer  for  fresh 
rolls  and  eggs  and  some  fat  Virginia 
ducklings  and  green  pease.  Last,  but 
not  least,  our  letters !  I  can  under- 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  285 

stand  a  man's  fancy  for  getting  out  of 
the  reach  of  telegrams  and  letters,  but 
after  a  week's  blank  one  welcomes  an 
echo  from  the  world  of  everyday." 

Lily,  who  had  no  desire  to  make  an 
exhibition  of  her  eyes,  escaped  to  her 
cabin,  where,  a  little  later,  a  number  of 
envelopes  were  put  into  her  hands. 
Letters  from  her  mother  she  read  at 
once.  Those  from  casual  friends  she 
glanced  at.  Last  to  attract  her  notice 
was  a  thick  package  addressed  to  her 
in  the  familiar  chirography  of  Barbara 
Clay. 

It  was  not  until  evening  that  Lily 
felt  inclined  to  break  the  seal  of  Bar 
bara's  epistle.  Grace,  who  was  in  her 
own  stateroom  tucking  away  her  chil 
dren  to  their  rest,  and  crooning  to  them 
the  lullabies  they  were  not  too  big  to 


286  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

love,  fancied  that  from  Lily's  quarters 
she  heard  an  exclamation  of  distress. 

"Lily,  dear,  may  I  come  in?"  she 
cried,  tapping  at  the  door.  "  It's  too 
absurd,  but  I  imagined  you  were  in 
pain." 

"It  is  nothing.  I  am  reading.  I 
will  come  to  you  presently,"  Lily's 
voice  answered,  and  Grace  went  back, 
light-hearted,  to  her  pleasant  toil. 

Lily  sat  staring  wildly  at  a  sheet  of 
notepaper  scrawled  with  Mrs.  Clay's 
bold  English  handwriting.  On  her 
lap  and  around  her  feet  lay  others  in 
envelopes  of  which  the  seals  had  long 
been  broken. 

These  letters  I  inclose  for  your  amusement  on  your 
voyage.  They  were  written  by  a  man  who  has  vowed 
vows  to  many  women,  and  whose  motive  in  marrying 
you  you  will  find  herein  discussed.  Some  of  them 
have  been  for  years  in  my  possession.  The  most  re- 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  287 

cent  will  enlighten  you  upon  any  points  that  may 
seem  to  be  obscure.  They  are  the  wedding  present 
to  you  of 

BARBARA  CLAY. 

With  hot  hands  the  young  girl  gath 
ered  together  the  scattered  envelopes. 
All  of  them  bore  the  same  superscrip 
tion,  all  of  them  were  written  by  Mel- 
rose.  For  a  moment  she  covered  her 
eyes  and  tried  to  think.  Within  her 
brain  suspicions  whirled  thick  and  fast 
like  November  leaves  before  the  storm. 
Then  resolutely  she  went  out  on  deck 
to  find  her  lover. 

Melrose  was  alone  and  smoking. 
He  threw  away  his  cigar  and  advanced 
to  meet  her.  At  that  hour  they  had 
been  accustomed  to  walk  and  talk  to 
gether. 

"  I  came-1- 1  came,"  Lily  panted, 
facing  him  with  blazing  eyes — "  I  came 


288  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

to  bring  you  these.  I  have  not  read 
them.  I  don't  want  to  handle  them." 

He  knew  by  intuition  what  serpent 
had  entered  into  his  Eden.  He  took 
the  packet  Lily  relinquished  with 
haughty  finger-tips,  and  stood  frown 
ing. 

"  It  is  like  her,"  he  muttered. 
"She  is  a  Thup-  who  loves  to  do  her 

o 

stabbing  in  the  back." 

"  It  is  true,  then?" 

"True  that  a  creature,  who  has  for 
years  made  a  deliberate  practice  of  toy 
ing  with  emotions  she  can  no  longer 
feel,  got  me  into  her  net.  Yes,  that  is 
true." 

"  That  she  is  only  one  of  many 
women.  That — that — oh,  I  can't,  I 
can't  !  Here  is  her  hateful  letter. 
Take  it  and  read  it  and  see  for  your- 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  289 

self  that  it  has  poisoned  all  my  life, 
that  between  us  two  there  can  never 
be  anything  again." 

Melrose  was  astonished  at  the 
passionate  protest  in  her  voice.  It 
was  rising  moonlight,  and  he  could  see 
that  her  face  was  pale  and  convulsed, 
like  a  classic  mask  of  tragedy.  He 
sought  to  soothe  her,  but  breaking 
away  from  him  with  shuddering  sobs, 
she  went  below. 

The  events  of  Lily's  life  following 
this  were  brief  and  crowded.  Cut 
ting  imperiously  short  the  lolanthes 
cruise,  she  induced  her  friends  to 
return  with  her  to  town.  Too  well 
she  realized  the  battle  there  to  be 
fought.  Brusquely,  and  without  prepa 
ration,  she  announced  to  her  mother 


290  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

her  intention  to  break  off  her  mar 
riage  with  Melrose.  Whether  most 
to  lament  this  deplorable  result,  or 
the  treachery  that  caused  it,  the  dis 
tracted  mother  could  not  at  first  tell. 
To  her,  for  a  short  space,  the  universe 
turned  upside  down.  A  second  glance 
at  the  situation  showed  Mrs.  Floyd- 
Curtis  that  even  the  enormity  of 
Mrs.  Clay's  offense  was  nothing  beside 
the  stinging  blow  of  the  failure  of 
Lily's  marriage.  With  tireless  argu 
ments,  with  tender  prayers,  with  floods 
of  tears,  she  besought  her  child  to 
reconsider  her  rash  determination. 
Poor  Eliphalet,  pressed  into  service 
as  an  advocate,  and  carefully  drilled 
into  what  he  should  say,  offered  Lily 
no  refuge  from  the  pressure  that 
narrowed  upon  her  day  by  day. 


THE  ANCLOMANIACS.  29! 

Even  Grace,  her  one  hope,  gravely 
kissing  her  upon  the  brow,  counseled 
her  to  weigh  well  a  decision  that 
would  entail  so  much  suffering  and 
distress  upon  those  she  loved,  as  well 
as  harshest  criticism  upon  herself. 

"  They  are  all  against  me,"  said 
poor  Lily  desperately,  and  driven  to 
bay.  She  had  shut  herself  in  her 
room,  pacing  the  floor,  clasping  her 
hands,  her  heart  beating  with  obsti 
nate  determination.  In  this  crisis, 
when  she  stood  facing,  as  it  were, 
the  weal  or  woe  of  her  whole  future 
life,  who  was  there  to  whom  it  could 
possibly  mean  as  much  as  to  her  ? 
One  word  of  a  counselor  she  could 
trust  would  be  of  infinite  relief, 
especially  if  that  counselor  were  to 
cast  the  balance  on  the  side  she 


292  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 

wanted.  For  back,  with  a  bound, 
had  sped  her  heart  to  the  one  love 
of  her  life.  A  certainty  that  if  she 
could  see  him,  speak  to  him,  break 
down  that  dreadful  barrier  of  time 
and  absence,  he  would  help  and  sus 
tain  her  faltering  steps,  came  to  her 
swift  and  strong.  And  then  Lily  did 
one  of  those  foolish  things  that  have 
no  excuse  save  in  impetuous  youth. 
She  took  from  a  sacred  corner  the 
little  book  the  professor  had  left 
with  her,  telling  her  whenever  she 

o 

needed  him  to  send  the  book,  and  he 
would  come,  were  it  from  the  world's 
end.  She  wrapped  it  up,  and  wrote 
his  name  and  address  upon  the  card, 
then,  ringing  for  a  servant,  dispatched 
the  parcel  to  the  nearest  mail  sta 
tion.  When  the  door  closed,  she 


THE  ANGLOMANIACS.  293 

threw  herself  upon  her  knees  beside 
her  bed,  and  prayed  that  her  token 
might  speed  in  safety  to  its  goal. 

This  action,  seeing  that  Lily's  en 
gagement  to  Lord  Melrose  had  not 
been  canceled,  was  indefensible  by  the 
canons  of  good  form.  Mrs.  Floyd- 
Curtis,  who  did  not  fail  to  become 
at  once  aware  of  it,  intercepted  the 
messenger,  and  was  shocked  that  her 
daughter  should  stoop  to  exhibit  such 
a  weakness.  Not  in  the  least  under 
standing  Lily's  intention, — or  the 
book, — she  took  care  to  suppress 
what  seemed  at  the  very  least  an 
overture  toward  correspondence  with 
the  obscure  and  uninteresting  Jencks. 
Without  ceremony  she  consigned  Mr. 
Lang's  delightful  essays  to  the  flames, 
saying  nothing  of  the  matter,  and 


294  THE  ANGLOMAN1ACS. 

thankful  for  the  reward  her  vigilance 
had  met.  Most  mothers  will,  agree 
with  her  .that  a  young  girl  should  be 
forcibly  restrained  from  committing 
follies  sure  to  bring  on  her  the  con 
demnation  of  the  society  by  whose 
laws  she  stands  adjudged. 

In  the  case  of  Melrose,  it  must 
certainly  be  said  that  he  behaved  very 
well.  He  even  showed  to  Lily's 
mother  his  letter  written  from  Florida 
to  Mrs.  Clay.  Mrs.  Floyd-Curtis,  in 
return,  asked  him  to  be  patient,  and  to 
make  allowance  for  Lily's  high-strung 
and  romantic  disposition.  She  did  not 
consider  herself  bound  to  give  confi 
dence  for  confidence  by  telling  all  she 
knew  of  Mr.  Jencks. 

Day  after  day  Lily  waited  for  an 
answer  that  never  came,  and  at  the 


THI-:  A. \c,i.oMA\Lics.  295 

end  of  April  she  married  Lord 
Mel  rose. 

The  particulars  of  a  wedding-  so 
much  and  so  recently  discussed  are 
here  superfluous.  Lily's  was  in  no 
way  original.  She  wore  white,  looked 
beautiful,  had  six  bridesmaids,  cried  a 
little  at  parting  with  her  parents,  and 
sailed  that  day  for  England. 

For  a  time  her  friends  the  Emorys, 
who  talked  of  her  constantly  with 
tenderest  regard,  heard  only  in  a 
general  way  of  the  movements  of  the 
new  Countess  of  Melrose.  She  was 
much  admired,  and  had  been  received 
everywhere  with  kindness.  When,  af 
ter  some  months,  a  letter  came  from 
her  to  Mrs.  Emory,  Grace  read  it 
a  second  time  before  handing  it  to 
Fred. 


296  THE  ANGLOMANIACS. 


"It  is  because  I  want  to  be  quite 
sure  she— 

"Well,  are  you?"  asked  her  hus 
band,  accustomed  to  be  the  interpreter 
of  her  unfinished  sentence. 

"  She  is  her  own  sweet  self.  She  is 
young  and  brave  and  loyal,  and  you 
will  see  how  good  he  has  been  to 
her—" 

"  Then,  pray,  why  do  you  sigh  ?" 

There  was  a  short  silence.  Then 
Grace  said,  smiling,  though  he  saw 
that  tears  were  in  her  eyes  : 

"  '  Nothing  will  bring  back  the  hour 
Of  splendor  in  the  grass,  of  glory  in  the  flower.'  " 

THE    END. 


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